A Band of Love

Well, once again I have very little to report. I am starting volunteering at the clinic tomorrow. So that means I get to spend my morning filing charts and hopefully getting to see some "interesting" cases.

I just finished reading a book called "Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends". It is another book in the long line of books that could be called Band of Brothers books. This particular book is written by Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron, two men that served in the 101st Airborne division, 506th regiment, 2nd battalion, Easy Company.

If you don't know, "Band of Brothers" was a book written by Stephen Ambrose about the men of Easy Company during WWII. This group of paratroopers were unique in the fact that they were trained together and then sent into combat together. This had never been done before. And it formed a deep bond between the men that were at Normandy, Market Garden, Bastogne, and Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Yes, Easy Company was at every turning point in the European Theater.

This book was turned into an HBO miniseries in 2000 by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. This show has extreme profanity, some of the most hideous gore I have ever seen, and is one of the most realistic movies out there about WWII. It really is something that everyone should see. Not when you are a kid, but people need to understand about war.

But this book, the one I just finished reading, is also really good. I wouldn't recommend it until you have read "Band of Brothers" and maybe even "The Biggest Brother" (another book, about Major Dick Winters, the commander of Easy Company). I have another book to read about Easy Company, major Winters' memoirs.

I'm not sure why Easy Company's story has captured the hears of so many people, including mine. Perhaps, it is because these men stayed friends for so long after the war was over? But personally think it is because those men were the best. They were the best, but they were human. They gave up so much to protect the freedom of so many people, in so many countries. Easy Company had over a 50% casualty rate. Those men not only became brothers, they became brothers that fought and died together.

I was watching an episode today, where two of the most well like men were wounded and almost died. For the other men it was as if their own flesh and blood brothers had been hurt. In the book I just finished Babe Heffron says he doesn't believe he is a hero, that the men that didn't come back are the heroes. That may be so, but they are all heroes in my book.




Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: If anyone does want to watch some of Band of Brothers, I would be happy to have you over. But it really isn't a pleasant show to watch.

Amendment 2: Reading/watching things like band of brothers really makes me realize how blessed we are. To have men that were willing to fight and die to protect you isn't something we should take lightly.

Amendment 3: A lot of people have sacrificed a lot so that we don't have too.