Jenn:

His writing that he died in 19 I don't know where the 1948 comes

Jenn:

from, but his dying that he died in 1948 doesn't really get fact

Jenn:

checked until the miniseries comes

Scott:

Then of course it gets really popular

Jenn:

He gets really popular, and his family sees it, and

Jenn:

this is in the miniseries.

Jenn:

It says it at the end, Blythe dies in 1948.

Jenn:

His family will see this and be like, hold up.

Jenn:

No he's not.

Scott:

Welcome to Talk with History.

Scott:

I am your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jenn.

Scott:

Hello.

Scott:

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels,

Scott:

YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations

Scott:

with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

Scott:

Today, we're heading back to hallowed ground, Arlington

Scott:

National Cemetery, one last time.

Scott:

We're on a mission to honor some real life heroes, the men of Easy

Scott:

Company, immortalized in the book and mini series Band of Brothers.

Scott:

From jumping into occupied France on D Day to braving the brutal winter

Scott:

offensive in the Battle of the Bulge, these soldiers faced unimaginable horrors.

Scott:

But their courage, their camaraderie, and their unwavering spirit became legend.

Scott:

today, five of these easy company veterans rest in Arlington, a place of quiet

Scott:

reflection and immense national pride.

Scott:

us as we locate their headstones and share the stories of these extraordinary men.

Scott:

So grab your headphones, lace up your walking shoes and prepare to be inspired.

Scott:

This is a journey of remembrance.

Scott:

and a tribute to the band of brothers buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Scott:

All right, Jen, so we know what we're talking about

Jenn:

talking about today.

Jenn:

Walk With History has done many videos from Arlington, and we

Jenn:

are very now intimately familiar with the topography of Arlington.

Jenn:

We know what areas you're going to cover, and basically, if you're going

Jenn:

there to cover a certain topic, how you want to plan your day, because you

Jenn:

can't be walking across the cemetery two or three times in one visit.

Jenn:

I would recommend.

Jenn:

Not even walking across it in one visit.

Jenn:

It is a massive space and You really don't get any kind of vehicle access

Jenn:

unless you have someone buried there.

Jenn:

So you must walk and it is hilly and it is a lot of exercise and

Jenn:

if it's Anytime in the heat of the summer it can be very tiring.

Scott:

what we we have for those listening to this Podcast episode, right?

Scott:

So on our youtube channel, we've cut we've probably made Maybe almost a

Scott:

dozen videos from from arlington.

Scott:

I've got a whole playlist and i'll link that that video playlist in the

Scott:

show notes of this podcast episode, but we've been there numerous times

Scott:

in almost every season in almost every condition Covered it's just some

Scott:

incredibly amazing people You actors and actresses and, obviously all veterans.

Scott:

It's been, we've done women, we've

Jenn:

done Tuskegee Airmen, Arlington House.

Jenn:

We do John F.

Jenn:

Kennedy, Tomb of the Unknown, so we do the big ones that you're going

Jenn:

to see on like an original visit.

Jenn:

And then we started to do more off the beaten path.

Jenn:

So we got into the back of Arlington and some randoms like when we

Jenn:

did Gunny Ermey, he's way off on the right side in a new section.

Jenn:

And so it was after we did Masters of the Air.

Jenn:

That took us to all the way back to the right to the left section where we found

Jenn:

Egan There we started to go well What other series have people that could be

Jenn:

buried at Arlington and we really were like band of brothers We couldn't and

Jenn:

we couldn't believe that we a hadn't done that and be really no one has

Scott:

Right, and because we've done Tuskegee Airmen, we've danced all

Scott:

around World War II, all throughout Arlington, and we don't know how we

Scott:

didn't cover the Band of Brothers, but you found out that there's five

Scott:

that are currently buried there.

Jenn:

They're currently buried there.

Jenn:

And what's nice?

Jenn:

I would say nice about the band of brothers is there in it really three

Jenn:

sections that are pretty close together.

Jenn:

So if you're going to visit the band of brothers in Arlington,

Jenn:

you can see all of them relatively easily and quickly, which is nice.

Scott:

Now, one of the, the first ones that we're going to talk about here was

Scott:

actually featured in the mini series.

Scott:

Relatively prominently

Scott:

. Jenn: We're going to talk about a more controversial character right

Scott:

off the get go because he has a prominent part in in the series.

Scott:

And he also was depicted inaccurately by Stephen Ambrose,

Scott:

who wrote the book in 1992.

Scott:

It's published.

Scott:

The show was made in 2001, right after 9 11.

Scott:

It airs.

Scott:

So it gets a lot of notoriety and camaraderie around the

Scott:

patriotism of the time.

Scott:

But Stephen Ambrose, who's a great scholar, really messes up on this person.

Scott:

And this person has a very prominent role in the series.

Scott:

So we're talking about Albert Blythe.

Scott:

He

Scott:

Yeah, so tell me a little bit about when now he was he a private first class

Jenn:

was private first class with the Easy company, second

Jenn:

battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 101st Airborne.

Jenn:

He.

Jenn:

makes that initial jump on D Day with the rest of Easy Company, the original

Jenn:

men of Easy Company and he gets separated from everybody and he's depicted in the

Jenn:

series as he gets separated and he's Scared he doesn't quite know what to do.

Jenn:

So he just goes to sleep

Jenn:

Band of Brothers: Sir, when I landed on D Day, I found myself

Jenn:

in a ditch all by myself.

Jenn:

I fell asleep.

Jenn:

I think it was, it was air sickness pills, I guess.

Jenn:

When I woke up, I didn't really try to find my unit.

Jenn:

To fight.

Jenn:

Just

Jenn:

I just stayed put.

Jenn:

What's your name, Trooper?

Jenn:

Blithe, sir.

Jenn:

Albert Blithe.

Scott:

The nice thing about doing covering miniseries like this sometimes or

Scott:

Historical figures covered in miniseries is you can cut in good examples.

Scott:

And so I actually cut in An example of him saying I don't in the miniseries.

Scott:

He wasn't explaining it to dick winters It was someone else and you

Scott:

can tell the way that they crafted for the miniseries this character

Scott:

was someone who was afraid, right?

Scott:

He said, hey, when I landed on D Day, I woke up and I was in my foxhole

Scott:

and I didn't go look for my company.

Scott:

I just laid there.

Scott:

And he he's portraying someone who, who it's, you put in the

Scott:

category of coward, unfortunately.

Jenn:

I want to debunk that because I want people to understand.

Jenn:

First of all, Blythe is coming from Philadelphia.

Jenn:

He only went to three years of high school before he enlisted in the paratroopers.

Jenn:

So he's 18, 19 years old when he's enlisting from his hometown.

Jenn:

There's no cowardice here.

Jenn:

He's what they call a misdrop.

Jenn:

So a misdrop is, there was a number of paratroopers who didn't hit the target

Jenn:

and got scattered out in different areas.

Scott:

We'll talk a little bit more about, one of the other band of

Scott:

brothers buried here talks about it in an interview and we'll talk we'll

Scott:

discuss that later and how that happens

Jenn:

you have to imagine to, to have trained with everybody to plan for D Day.

Jenn:

And then this huge invasion of D Day and then to get misdropped and lost

Jenn:

he teams up with other misdrops and they found the rest of Easy Company.

Jenn:

But what you do in those initial moments is like scary because you're

Jenn:

by yourself across enemy lines in France occupied Nazi Germany.

Jenn:

And and you can understand like what he's saying is, I didn't

Jenn:

know what to do, so I fell.

Jenn:

I went to sleep or I just stayed in my position and waited

Jenn:

till other people found me.

Jenn:

That's more of what he did.

Jenn:

He's basically just stood fast and he just waited.

Jenn:

Now they depicted in this.

Jenn:

So I went to sleep like, he maybe he fell asleep, but it wasn't as if he

Jenn:

was like, I don't know what to do.

Jenn:

I'm scared.

Jenn:

I'm gonna fall asleep.

Jenn:

I'm gonna go to sleep.

Scott:

even his show he says oh, I think it was the air sickness medicine But I

Scott:

also found in an interview later where dick winters, you know in a interview

Scott:

says the same thing that you're saying is he debunks that he's listen, the

Scott:

miniseries was exaggerated, right?

Scott:

And he goes on to say, let me tell you about this man

Jenn:

I think the problem Winters had with this, and this is a problem that you and I

Jenn:

both have with this, is he's not a coward.

Jenn:

He is doing his duty.

Jenn:

He did jump and he got lost.

Jenn:

He got, not by any fault of his own.

Jenn:

He did find his group.

Jenn:

He does continue to fight.

Jenn:

You will see he, he's actually injured by a sniper.

Jenn:

He does receive the Purple Heart.

Jenn:

So what happens after he's reunited is it shows some kind of, he gets

Jenn:

hysterical blindness, they call it.

Jenn:

So it's basically like a temporary case of PTSD where you're just so overwhelmed.

Jenn:

by the stress of everything that your body reacts to stress and we've,

Scott:

down.

Jenn:

we've talked about this a lot, whether or not you want your body to

Jenn:

react to stress, your body will react to

Scott:

The thing is, is there are certain things that you can train to

Scott:

and there's certain things that you just can't a good example that always

Scott:

pops into my head is for mountaineers.

Scott:

Mountaineers, they can train to be in good physical condition, have good

Scott:

cardio, but until you actually get to altitude, you, you won't know until

Scott:

how your body's gonna react to it.

Scott:

You can be in peak physical condition here at sea level, be a marathon

Scott:

runner and all this stuff, and carry heavy pa heavy, heavy packs.

Scott:

You get to altitude and you might, your body just might not be able to

Scott:

handle it and that's, no, there's no conditioning around that.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

So this is to me, an example now, I think for the mini series.

Scott:

about again in the past, they capture a bunch of what happens to other

Scott:

people and they tend to embody multiple examples of something into a character.

Scott:

I have a feeling that's what happened because what the, of known

Scott:

for in this mini series is his interaction later with Dick Winters.

Jenn:

And that is true.

Jenn:

So Winters does.

Jenn:

Winters goes to the infirmary for another reason, and as he's in the

Jenn:

infirmary, he goes down the line to see his guys, and Blythe is one of them.

Jenn:

And Blythe is having a case of temporary hysteria blindness,

Jenn:

and Winters talks to him.

Jenn:

And Winters basically levels with him, humanizes it, and tells

Jenn:

him, we're, we're all scared.

Jenn:

Right?

Jenn:

Even Winters admits we're all scared.

Jenn:

We all, we all are not really knowing what we're doing.

Jenn:

We're hoping training takes over.

Jenn:

All of us are in this together.

Jenn:

This is war.

Jenn:

Winters even says it happens relatively quickly where Bly gets this understanding.

Jenn:

He feels some camaraderie.

Jenn:

He feels understood.

Jenn:

I think he feels a little bit of a shared.

Jenn:

Kinship there, which happens with soldiers and starts to come out of

Jenn:

it because it is a physical ailment that is brought on by stress.

Jenn:

And once you can start to alleviate that stress or at least deal with the stress,

Jenn:

the physical element heals itself.

Jenn:

And so hysterical blindness basically clears and then He is part of a

Jenn:

group that investigates a farmhouse.

Jenn:

Days later, he's shot in the collarbone by a sniper.

Jenn:

He recovers from the wound.

Jenn:

He's awarded the Purple Heart.

Jenn:

Now the series will say that he never recovers from the wounds and dies in 1948.

Jenn:

I have no idea where Stephen Ambrose got that, but most people say it's

Jenn:

because no one ever really talked to Blythe again after he's injured.

Scott:

I think Dick Winters said in that later interview he mentioned

Scott:

that he got wounded and he said that they thought they had lost him.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

So I'm I'm connecting some dots based on what we've seen in your research

Scott:

is that my assumption is that he was injured Right ended up surviving

Scott:

it but the rest of easy company had already moved on They didn't realize

Scott:

that he survived and then from there.

Scott:

I think he was he's probably shipped home

Jenn:

Yeah, he was shipped home and he was released from the

Jenn:

army hospital in October 1945.

Jenn:

So it's after the end of the war and he basically loses touch with everybody.

Jenn:

Now he eventually will serve in Korea.

Jenn:

He re ups and serves in the Korea in the 187th Airborne where he's awarded a bronze

Jenn:

star and a silver star for jumping behind

Jenn:

. enemy lines surrounded by a Chinese battalion.

Jenn:

He never gets to retire from military service because he dies

Jenn:

at age 44 in December of 1967.

Jenn:

So I think this is a perfect storm.

Jenn:

Since Ambrose writes Band of Brothers and it's published in 1992, he's doing

Jenn:

his research in the 80s, publishing it.

Jenn:

Blythe does die in the 60s, so he doesn't have to fact check

Jenn:

Blythe's death, but Blythe is dead.

Jenn:

So it works, and if you're not talking specifically to family or reaching out

Jenn:

to family or finding people who knew him and remembered him, His writing

Jenn:

that he died in 19 I don't know where the 1948 comes from, but his dying

Jenn:

that he died in 1948 doesn't really get fact checked until the miniseries comes

Scott:

Then of course it gets really popular

Jenn:

He gets really popular, and his family sees it, and

Jenn:

this is in the miniseries.

Jenn:

It says it at the end, Blythe dies in 1948.

Jenn:

His family will see this and be like, hold up.

Jenn:

No he's not.

Jenn:

He has a wife.

Jenn:

With Kay, he has a son Gordon, who will, who will see this and talk about what

Jenn:

really happened on active duty in Germany.

Jenn:

He felt nauseated, returned from a weekend at Bastogne in Belgium.

Jenn:

He had taken part in a commemorating ceremony of the Battle of the Bulge,

Jenn:

and he was taken to the emergency department in Germany where he was

Jenn:

met, admitted with a perforated ulcer and he dies in intensive care.

Jenn:

And then he's Buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full honors.

Jenn:

So in Band of Brothers, it is depicted, unfortunately, it isn't accurate.

Jenn:

The Blythe family comes out and it led to corrections in subsequent

Jenn:

books of Band of Brothers.

Jenn:

So if you have new editions of Band of Brothers, it is corrected but you will

Jenn:

still see it in the original series.

Jenn:

And we just want to honor all of you.

Jenn:

Blythe because he was a hero and some people will say he's depicted not as one

Jenn:

and I just want to make it clear just because you suffer from hysteria blindness

Jenn:

or just because you suffer from some kind of PTSD or just because you get separated

Jenn:

from your group and you hold fast.

Jenn:

instead of taking on a thousand German soldiers by yourself

Jenn:

does not make you a coward.

Jenn:

You are doing your duty.

Jenn:

You're doing your job and you have to overcome challenges and challenges don't

Jenn:

just happen to you after your service.

Jenn:

Your PTSD doesn't just happen to you after you're done.

Jenn:

PTSD can happen during your service.

Jenn:

Your time during your service as you're fighting.

Jenn:

And if you overcome it, then in the moment you are still

Jenn:

overcoming and you're still a hero.

Jenn:

And so we wanted to honor Blythe.

Jenn:

He's the first person I visited in Arlington.

Jenn:

He's right by Robert, Todd Lincoln.

Jenn:

So most people will go see Robert Todd Lincoln, that is Lincoln's oldest son.

Scott:

just like down the hill.

Jenn:

down the hill from it and it's so very easy to find and there's

Jenn:

a path to Robert Todd Lincoln's Sarcophagus, and so just right

Jenn:

down the hill you will see Blythe.

Jenn:

I actually met other people there who were looking for Blythe and I Directed

Jenn:

them to Egan from Masters of the Air.

Jenn:

They didn't know Egan was there and we took pictures They were from Poland

Jenn:

and we talked for a little while.

Jenn:

So Blythe is a visited person from Band of Brothers at Arlington

Jenn:

and he's at Easygrave to find and he's there waiting for you.

Scott:

It was, it was cool to be able to make that part of the video for him.

Scott:

Now, the next person we're going to talk about was was actually

Scott:

part of the leadership portrayed in the show band of brothers.

Scott:

And this was Lieutenant Colonel Strayer, if I remember

Jenn:

Yeah, Robert Strayer.

Jenn:

He was the battalion commander for a time over Easy Company.

Jenn:

He supported making the show Band of Brothers, but he said

Jenn:

it was hard for him to watch.

Jenn:

He's depicted by actor Phil McKee.

Jenn:

He is in charge of Easy Company, hands it over to Dick Winters.

Scott:

Now, if, if you are a Band of Brothers fan, and you remember the show

Scott:

so picture there's, I don't know the name of the episode, but they are still

Scott:

in England and they are training, right?

Scott:

And it's the scene where some of the soldiers kind of trick Captain

Scott:

Sobel . Into cutting the fence of this farmer's field, right?

Scott:

One of the soldiers is yelling from behind some bushes Imitate and

Scott:

basically imitating like a major,

Scott:

. Band of Brothers: Connie, Bobo's lost again, right?

Scott:

Yeah, he's lost.

Scott:

Hey, Luz.

Scott:

Luz.

Scott:

Can you do Major Horton?

Scott:

That's a wild pair of crap in the woods, son.

Scott:

That's good.

Scott:

If you get a good major, you can go see Smuck.

Scott:

Can I just move it?

Scott:

Oh, yeah.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

Luz, you got it.

Scott:

You got it.

Scott:

Come on.

Scott:

All right, just this once.

Scott:

No, sir.

Scott:

It's here.

Scott:

You're a full grid off.

Scott:

Goddamn it.

Scott:

Is there a problem, Captain Sobel?

Scott:

Who said that?

Scott:

Who broke silence?

Scott:

I think it's Major Horton, sir.

Scott:

Major Horton?

Scott:

What is he?

Scott:

Did he join us?

Scott:

I think maybe he's moving between the platoons, sir.

Scott:

What is the goddamn holdup, Master Sobel?

Scott:

A fence!

Scott:

Sir, um God.

Scott:

A barbed wire fence!

Scott:

Oh, that dog just ain't gonna hunt!

Scott:

Now you cut that fence and get this god damn platoon on the move!

Scott:

Yes, sir!

Scott:

Then It flashes forward to, Dick Winter seeing Sobel come up, they're

Scott:

completely lost and all this stuff.

Scott:

Band of Brothers: You've done it now, Yanks.

Scott:

You've captured me.

Scott:

Would that be the enemy?

Scott:

As a matter of fact, yes.

Scott:

And then again, it steps right into Sobel getting yelled

Scott:

at by then Major Strayer.

Scott:

Band of Brothers: Who was the idiot who cut that man's fence?

Scott:

I was ordered to, sir.

Scott:

By who?

Scott:

Major Horton, sir.

Scott:

Major Horton?

Scott:

Yes, sir.

Scott:

Major Horton told you to do that?

Scott:

Yes, sir.

Scott:

Major Horton ordered you to cut the fence?

Scott:

Yes, he did.

Scott:

Major Horton is on leave.

Scott:

And then you just, you see, it's that moment in a show where the, you

Scott:

the antagonist gets his comeuppance.

Scott:

And that was one of those moments.

Scott:

And it was, it was major Strayer that was giving him the, reading him the right act.

Jenn:

So he's in charge.

Jenn:

So in a major, as a major in 1942, he's in command of the 2nd

Jenn:

Battalion of the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne.

Jenn:

In 1945, he's made executive officer of the 506, and his position as the 2nd

Jenn:

Battalion CO was filled by Major Richard.

Jenn:

Winters.

Jenn:

So that he basically gets promoted and then Winters takes his job.

Jenn:

During his service, he's going to earn four bronze stars, one

Jenn:

silver star and one purple heart.

Jenn:

He's pretty badass too.

Jenn:

And I think he's a good leadership example for winters.

Jenn:

I think winters looks up to him more, definitely more than Sobel , but

Jenn:

he fills that role because he had a good example from Strayer on how to

Scott:

a good example from Strayer on how to build that wall.

Scott:

He's he's a little bit of that connection between the colonel who ultimately who

Scott:

finally sends Sobel off to Without he fires him without firing him He's like

Scott:

this is a promotion to send some off to go do you know to to do training?

Scott:

And major strayer is right there, right?

Scott:

So again, if you if you remember that scene where Sobel is essentially

Scott:

quote unquote promoted But he's sent off to do to run a training company.

Scott:

Major Strayer is the third person in that scene.

Scott:

It's the colonel in Sobel , but Major Strayer is sitting

Scott:

there right off to the side.

Scott:

Doesn't have many lines, but he's right there.

Scott:

And that's how, and that's how it would have been.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

So you and I relate a lot to this, right?

Jenn:

Because we were both officers in the military and I always talk about Dick

Jenn:

Winters and what it takes to lead and then move up the rank politically

Jenn:

as the leadership role gets more and more I wouldn't say important, but,

Jenn:

It's more difficult because you're overseeing more and more people and

Jenn:

it's more and more political and then it's more and more your decisions are

Jenn:

very heavy at this point because they have lasting impact and they trickle

Jenn:

down over a ton of your personnel and that is where this is where Strayer is.

Jenn:

And these are the hard decisions, because even though you see Sobel and

Jenn:

you're like, Oh, he's terrible leader.

Jenn:

He does prepare his men better than any other leader because he makes them do

Jenn:

all this physical activity to a fault.

Jenn:

But they are so conditioned and ready for D Day.

Jenn:

And even though Sobel is not good with the leadership of taking any kind

Jenn:

of criticism, or learning from his mistakes, he really is one of those

Jenn:

leaders who feels like they're right all the time and really rests on rank.

Jenn:

and You still as a leader of someone like that, you are still trying to

Jenn:

teach and mentor them to be better.

Jenn:

You don't just automatically kick them out or change or you really do your best

Jenn:

to try to help them learn from that.

Jenn:

And unfortunately in this situation, trouble didn't.

Jenn:

We're, we're getting into battle, time is of the essence, and they do

Jenn:

make this quick leadership change.

Jenn:

But you see how difficult it is even for the leaders to do

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And that's why I I liked that you covered Strayer because, right, as,

Scott:

as someone who's more senior now, right, as you go up, you deal with like

Scott:

knuckleheads or even good soldiers and sailors that make knucklehead decisions.

Scott:

And so if you think about it, Strayer dealt with Sobel when he cut

Scott:

the fence, he probably dealt with the NCOs during the kind of little

Scott:

mutiny , right, when they said, Hey, we're not going to follow this man.

Scott:

And the colonel's yelling at them, but you know that Strayer was

Scott:

the one that first got that word.

Scott:

He's I can just picture Strayer being like, seriously, come on.

Scott:

He's I don't want to deal with this.

Scott:

I can just picture him in between before the information got to the colonel.

Jenn:

I, I picture the colonel ripping Strayer apart before

Jenn:

he rips apart the NCOs, right?

Jenn:

He's gonna, believe me, your higher ups are gonna take it out first on

Jenn:

the person next closest to them.

Jenn:

They don't take it out on

Scott:

Strayer probably got it first from the colonel and the colonel

Scott:

probably calmed down after Strayer took the initial shots and then,

Jenn:

And that's your job.

Scott:

and that's, that's part of it.

Scott:

So it was, it was really neat to be able to cover him cause not one

Scott:

of the core characters, but part of the leadership and then to see what

Scott:

he did after the fact was really

Jenn:

Exactly.

Jenn:

And in just instrumental, just another good leader.

Jenn:

He's right beside the the main building of Arlington.

Jenn:

So when you walk into Arlington, the main building that has the

Jenn:

restrooms and the little, Visitor center, this set, he's in the next

Jenn:

section, rape recited to the left.

Jenn:

Very easy to walk to and very easy to find.

Jenn:

He's buried there with his wife, Mildred.

Jenn:

She's an army nurse.

Jenn:

They marry in January, 1942, and he retired from the army after the war.

Jenn:

They settled down in Pennsylvania and then they retired to Florida.

Jenn:

He dies on December 18th, 2002.

Jenn:

And so they're both at Arlington National Cemetery.

Jenn:

And we thank them both for their service.

Scott:

Now, the next person we're talking about here is not quite as

Scott:

much out there on him, but I believe he was, he was I don't know if he was

Scott:

part of the original Easy Company, but he is buried in Arlington and he

Scott:

did serve with, with Easy Company.

Jenn:

So Arthur Moserall there isn't a lot on him.

Jenn:

He's hard to find information on, but he is part of the original

Jenn:

and he's born in 1940, 1924.

Jenn:

So if he's making the jump in 1944, he's 20 years old.

Jenn:

So these guys are so young.

Jenn:

He's born in Maine and he was a paratrooper.

Jenn:

He marries Wanda.

Jenn:

Together they have Georgette and Hope.

Jenn:

He dies on June 11th, 1988 and he's buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Scott:

And that's one of the things that I liked.

Scott:

About the miniseries overall was Obviously you have the central figures right the

Scott:

main characters that everybody knows But they are really a representation

Scott:

of everybody else that was there that wasn't written about that wasn't You

Scott:

know didn't have journals that they could be read and this that and the

Scott:

other so for soldiers like mazerol They are a representation because he

Scott:

was right there with them during the

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

He was like, it even says on his tombstone the 101st airborne.

Jenn:

I always like the ones that are simple.

Jenn:

Right?

Jenn:

So I appreciate that about it as well.

Jenn:

He's 63 years old when he dies, and he dies in Arlington, Virginia.

Jenn:

So he must have ended up there for his retirement, even though he is from

Jenn:

Maine, but he has looks like he has two daughters, Georgette and Hope.

Jenn:

And there's not much else on him.

Jenn:

But we want to recognize him as one of He's the company's 101st.

Scott:

Our next figure that we're about to talk about, actually, he was

Scott:

on the show, but he portrayed himself.

Scott:

So he was in some of the interviews.

Jenn:

Yeah, so Forrest Guth, they had planned to put him as a character

Jenn:

in the show, and they actually made a uniform, because I guess his

Jenn:

uniform was, more specific to him.

Jenn:

He put a lot of pockets on his uniform because I guess he liked

Jenn:

to have a lot of things on him, carry a lot of things on him.

Jenn:

And as most people know in the military, you can individualize your uniform

Jenn:

to a point, especially in combat.

Scott:

especially in combat, especially, I mean, when you're

Scott:

spending, years away from home, you're going to customize your stuff.

Jenn:

I mean, you can think about the SEALs do it all the time, even

Scott:

And he was interesting because not only did he have some kind of brief

Scott:

spots and interviews during the mini series, but he stuck around long enough

Scott:

that I actually found some, some other interviews done with him that I found

Scott:

on YouTube that I was able to cut into our video and him talking about, he must

Scott:

have been some sort of like engineer.

Scott:

He worked in an engineering plant because he, he, he talked about

Scott:

how he could have been deferred.

Scott:

he was working for.

Scott:

like a defense industry company, but then him and some of his

Scott:

friends in his hometown were like, you know what, we should join up.

Scott:

Let's go join the 101st Airborne, because I think they're getting paid

Scott:

50 bucks, 50 bucks more a month.

Scott:

So I'm, we're going to join up with

Jenn:

Yeah, he, he's very money driven, which at a young age, you would be he's

Jenn:

a part of the original guys in Georgia.

Jenn:

He's in Aldeborne, our video from there.

Jenn:

So he'll be there as well.

Jenn:

What his ability to do that makes him so special is he has this

Jenn:

ability to modify and repair weapons.

Jenn:

He was able to make his M1 rifle fully automatic.

Scott:

Really?

Scott:

Yeah.

Jenn:

So that's where his engineering brain comes in, and that's why he is

Jenn:

became the a member of the armor for their for his comrades, his uniform was unique.

Jenn:

He sold on the extra pockets to carry extra equipment and ammunition.

Scott:

And you said that he was one of two.

Scott:

The other was a character that was in the main series, was Shifty Powers

Scott:

who was like an expert sharpshooter.

Scott:

Yeah.

Jenn:

They were the only two got expert.

Jenn:

So if you, you and I both know if you see ribbons, and you get your

Jenn:

rifle qual and your pistol qual.

Jenn:

Sometimes you'll see an S on the ribbon, which means you're a sharpshooter,

Jenn:

but sometimes you'll see an E on the ribbon, which means you're an expert.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And, and typically, especially, in companies like this, if you got

Scott:

only two of your soldiers were, were expert, marksmen, they're

Scott:

going to be doing some of that work.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

That was, you're going to jump in behind enemy lines and if

Scott:

you need a sharpshooter, you're going to grab your two experts.

Jenn:

And if you can make your weapon fully automatic, which means he doesn't

Jenn:

have to reload as quick To make your sharpshooter have an audit that it

Jenn:

just puts you ahead of the game.

Jenn:

So that's that's why he has the extra pockets.

Jenn:

When you think about he's carrying the extra equipment and doing things

Jenn:

like that, he made his first combat jump into Normandy on June 6th, 1944.

Scott:

If I remember correctly, he gets injured and I think he gets sent home.

Jenn:

was, he jumped into Operation Market Garden on September 17th, 1944.

Jenn:

And his, he was injured during the landing because of a parachute malfunction.

Jenn:

He's taken to an army hospital in England.

Jenn:

He rejoins Easy Company in France before they're transported to Bastogne and

Jenn:

to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.

Jenn:

So he is with

Scott:

So He comes back.

Scott:

Okay.

Jenn:

And he's selected for the patrol mission.

Jenn:

led by Sergeant Ken Mercer because of his German speaking ability.

Jenn:

And he won a 30 day furlough to return to the States.

Jenn:

And then the war ended before he could rejoin his unit.

Jenn:

So he just has a lot going for him.

Jenn:

He can speak German.

Scott:

It's got that engineering brain,

Jenn:

an engineering brain and he's a expert marksman.

Jenn:

So he re he enrolls in college when he's done.

Jenn:

He gets a master's degree.

Jenn:

He becomes a teacher in Norfolk, Virginia.

Scott:

is where we're recording

Jenn:

And that's where we're recording this.

Jenn:

And that's where he meets his wife, Harriet.

Jenn:

They married 1949.

Jenn:

They moved to Delaware.

Jenn:

He becomes an electronics teacher at high school there.

Jenn:

And then he dies in August in Delaware.

Jenn:

He does interpret the German at one point, but his role is replaced by another actor

Jenn:

in the episode Last Patrol, but that was him who really did that interpretation.

Jenn:

And we just want to honor him because it just goes to show you all these

Jenn:

skills you have that really can be helpful in war, speaking the

Jenn:

language, being a good marksman,

Scott:

Well, and, and to our point earlier, he was another misdrop, so he

Scott:

talks about in his later interview, it was, 60s or 70s, something like that,

Scott:

that got posted on YouTube about, he he's recounting his experience for D Day, and

Scott:

he's talking about seeing the tracers, he's talking about hearing bullets hitting

Scott:

the wings of his plane, watching another plane go down, and then he, he says that

Scott:

even he landed two miles from where he was supposed to meet with his company.

Scott:

And it was because these B 17 or whatever they were, whatever the

Scott:

aircraft were that they were flying, they were jumping out of the, the pilots

Scott:

were still relatively new as well.

Scott:

And so instead of going, much slower, they were going about twice the speed

Scott:

that they should have been flying.

Scott:

So they flew too far.

Scott:

So when the green light, went on and everybody jumps out of the plane.

Scott:

They're two miles, two miles away.

Jenn:

So that nervousness of war, right?

Jenn:

And so that's what he's talking about that.

Jenn:

Even though D Day was planned so, specifically that because

Jenn:

they went faster than I think they were supposed to go like 45

Scott:

He said 75 but they were doing one

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

So they went double 75 knots.

Jenn:

They went one 50.

Jenn:

And because of that, they landed two miles off course and to land two miles

Jenn:

off course as an individual with no protection and then trying to find the

Jenn:

rest of your crew, which he does, but.

Jenn:

to go two miles in enemy territory, which all the pockets with all the

Jenn:

ammunition on him, which means it's heavier, which means he's gonna have to,

Jenn:

it's almost like rucking at that point.

Jenn:

But he does it.

Jenn:

So he talks about that.

Jenn:

So I just think he's It's just an unsung hero.

Jenn:

Again, that skill set that comes into play.

Jenn:

And then to live in Norfolk, Virginia.

Jenn:

I think I, I shout that out in the video since we're here as

Scott:

Yeah, you definitely do.

Scott:

Now, the last person that, that we covered for this video was, goes by

Scott:

the last name of Taylor and that he was interesting because he was

Scott:

an NCO if I remember correctly.

Scott:

And I, I believe you even had mentioned that he had taken part in the when

Scott:

the NCOs went to the colonel said, Hey, we're not gonna follow Sobel

Scott:

. he as a person wasn't really portrayed in the show.

Scott:

But he was one of those NCOs.

Scott:

He

Jenn:

So we're talking about tech tech Sergeant Amos Buck Taylor.

Jenn:

Now I want to reiterate these last couple of graves are all in section 60.

Jenn:

So there's really only three sections you have to go to

Jenn:

in Arlington to see them all.

Jenn:

Like I said, Blythe is by Robert Todd Strayer is right.

Jenn:

Right to the left.

Jenn:

I think it's section 54 and then section 60 is these last three which is again

Jenn:

60 is one of our most visited sections.

Jenn:

It's a large section.

Jenn:

It's an active section.

Jenn:

It's a more recent section.

Jenn:

So if you're out in section 60, more than likely you are going

Jenn:

to see people visiting graves.

Jenn:

And that's what Taylor is as well, but he is an NCO of Easy Company.

Jenn:

And he is a part of the original 140 men.

Jenn:

His life story is featured in a 2009 book.

Jenn:

We who are alive and remain the untold stories of band of brothers, because

Jenn:

he is part of this whole original group he has this interaction with Sobel.

Jenn:

Because he goes AWOL from the training at Fort Benning.

Jenn:

He goes AWOL to meet his, to meet Elaine, who he later will marry and his

Jenn:

three day pass is canceled by Sobel.

Jenn:

And He will marry her, and he was supposed to marry her then, but

Jenn:

his 3 day pass gets cancelled, and then he has to marry her later, and

Jenn:

then He has opinions about Sobol.

Jenn:

He says that he was, he never hated him.

Jenn:

He thought he could be unfair and he could not be trusted for battle situations.

Jenn:

And because of that, he's one of the NCOs that participate in the mutiny in England.

Jenn:

So he is depicted in the show as just one of the characters, but he

Jenn:

doesn't really have a distinct name and everything like that, but just

Jenn:

know that he's one of those guys.

Jenn:

He does make the initial jump, his first combat jump on D Day.

Jenn:

He's one of the misdrops.

Jenn:

He finds the other three after landing and then they join their

Jenn:

own unit three or four days later.

Jenn:

He's wounded after the battle of Keraton.

Jenn:

He's evacuated to hospital in England.

Jenn:

That's where he lost his camera that he brought with him to

Jenn:

Normandy, which is too bad.

Jenn:

In and September of 1944, he makes another jump for Operation Market

Jenn:

Garden, which eventually failed.

Jenn:

He's a company that's defending the island.

Jenn:

He participates in Operation Pegasus in October of 1944 and After

Jenn:

easy company has been relieved.

Jenn:

He gets involved in a traffic accident.

Jenn:

He fought in the Battle of the Bulge It's him and another man who find and kill the

Jenn:

German soldier that shot Walter Gordon.

Jenn:

And in January 1945, Taylor shot in the leg and sent to an aid station.

Jenn:

That wound was serious and he spent 11 months in the hospital and then

Jenn:

he is discharged from the hospital.

Jenn:

Army.

Jenn:

He marries Elaine in 1945 while still at the rehab hospital.

Jenn:

Her dress, which I love is made from Taylor's white silk reserve chute.

Jenn:

So I love a couple women did this.

Jenn:

They would make their wedding dresses from that white reserve chute.

Jenn:

So their second chute is made of that white silk and because

Jenn:

silk was difficult to get.

Jenn:

during the war.

Jenn:

It's one of those ration materials.

Jenn:

Women didn't have this material available to them to make their wedding dresses.

Jenn:

So she makes her wedding dress from his reserve chute, which

Jenn:

I think is just so beautiful.

Scott:

I thought it was really cool.

Scott:

You called that out in the video.

Jenn:

He's discharged in December and he works for the VA.

Jenn:

He joins the CIA.

Jenn:

He spends 25 years with the CIA so we don't know what he did.

Jenn:

They live in Sewell's Point for 30 years.

Jenn:

They moved to Orange City in 2010 and then he passes away in

Jenn:

2011, 18 days after his wife.

Jenn:

So I mentioned that too in the video.

Jenn:

So he's just one of those characters that I almost don't know if he's not

Jenn:

depicted because of his work with the CIA

Scott:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

he's important and he did some important things that could It could

Jenn:

be played by a character, but because of his work with the CIA, it's almost

Jenn:

like maybe you shouldn't focus on me and my life just so people aren't

Jenn:

digging more into my background.

Jenn:

It seems I don't know, I'm just, we have friends that kind of work in that

Jenn:

area and it seems the longer they work in that area, the more they pull their

Jenn:

social media stuff or their life away.

Jenn:

Okay.

Jenn:

So I wonder about that.

Jenn:

that a little bit.

Jenn:

But I just think he's awesome.

Jenn:

And we just wanted to remember him.

Jenn:

So those are the five men from Easy Company that are in

Jenn:

Arlington National Cemetery.

Jenn:

So if you wanted to visit them, they are a very easy group of men to visit.

Jenn:

You could do it on one day, you could do it as you go Tomb of

Jenn:

the Unknown and Robert Kennedy.

Jenn:

Those are what people usually see when they go to Arlington.

Jenn:

And you can see the five band of brothers as well, which

Jenn:

would be relatively easy to do.

Jenn:

So it was an honor for us to do it.

Jenn:

I think it's awesome to remember them and remember the series and

Jenn:

the series, it always goes up and down with its popularity.

Jenn:

And I think it, as masters of the air come out, people revisit band of brothers.

Jenn:

So it's just was awesome for us to be there.

Scott:

Well that brings us to the end of our visit

Scott:

. to Arlington National Cemetery and our exploration of the lives of the Easy

Scott:

Company soldiers laid to rest there.

Scott:

Their bravery and sacrifice during World War II helped shape

Scott:

the world we live in today.

Scott:

Their stories serve as a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit

Scott:

in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Scott:

Before you go, I want to leave you with a thought.

Scott:

Easy Company wasn't just a military unit, it was a brotherhood.

Scott:

These men fought for each other.

Scott:

relied on each other, and formed an enduring bond that transcended war.

Scott:

Their unwavering loyalty and commitment to one another is a message

Scott:

that continues to resonate today.

Scott:

So let's honor their memory, not just by remembering their wartime achievements,

Scott:

but also by carrying forward that spirit of camaraderie in our own lives.

Scott:

Thank you for listening to the Talk With History podcast, and please reach out

Scott:

to us at our website, talkwithhistory.

Scott:

com.

Scott:

But more importantly, if you know someone else that might enjoy this podcast, shoot

Scott:

them a text and tell them to look us up.

Scott:

We rely on you, our community, to grow and we appreciate you all every day.

Scott:

We'll talk to you next time.