I didn't get to barbecue today.  I had forgotten that the kids were invited to a mid-day birthday party at the city park, so I sat there in the shade, smoked a couple of pipes, drank some Mountain Dew, and read the new book for a couple of hours.

This book was written by Dick Winters.  Most readers of this blog have probably already read Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose--or at least seen the miniseries.  Winters is one of the men written about in that book.  Whereas Band of Brothers was written by someone who did extensive research and interviews,  Beyond Band of Brothers was written by the man who was really there.  His chapter about the D-Day landing is spellbinding.

Winters is an exceptional man.  I think there are few like him on the face of the earth.

Have just started a book today that I received a few days ago:  Beyond Band of Brothers:  The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters.  I've only read through the end of chapter 2, but it's already quite riveting.

Here's just a tiny excerpt that I thought would be suitable for my usual kind of topic.

In mid January, the army picked up its pace and rapidly transitioned from a peacetime establishment to a wartime military force.  Six-day weeks gave way to seven-day workweeks.  This gave me the opportunity to observe some of the officers more carefully.  Most of the officers at Camp Croft had come directly from the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), including my platoon leader.  Neither he nor the other platoon leaders knew their jobs.  My frustration reached new heights one rainy day when a lieutenant came to teach our platoon about the new M-1 Garand 30-06 semiautomatic rifle, which the army was just fielding.  In giving the nomenclature and the operation of the new weapon, he picked up a 1903 Springfield rifle and spent forty-five minutes talking about the M-1.  The lieutenant didn't even realize he wasn't holding an M-1.  I thought this was impossible as no leader could be this dense.

I might do an actual review of this book when I finish it, since Eponym has some nifty pre-formatted review stuff built in here.

The book has lots of stories that were never told before.  For now, I'll just say that this looks like a book well worth reading.