Dick Winters Statue Dedicated at Normandy
Today marks the 68th anniversary of the D-Day invasion and the likeness of one heroic Pennsylvanian is helping to pay tribute to many who sacrificed and risked everything that fateful day in 1944.
Hershey, Pennsylvania native Dick Winters was a member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne when he parachuted into the town of Saint Mere Eglise. That event and the exploits that followed would eventually be chronicled by historian Stephen Ambrose in the book Band of Brothersand the HBO mini-series of
- Pennsylvania native Dick Winters will stand watch over Normandy as a tribute to all junior U.S. military officers who stormed the beaches or jumped into France in 1944
the same name. Winters died last year, but he has become so respected his likeness is featured in a new monument that was dedicated at Normandy today. The statue honors the leadership of all junior U.S. military officers who stormed the beaches or jumped into France in 1944.
Planning for the monument took more than two years, but many agree that Winters is a fitting representative of the brave men who landed and jumped on D-Day. Major General James McConville is the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division. He says Dick Winters personifies what a leader is all about.
Several family members of Easy Company veterans were on hand for the statue dedication.
*WITF radio’s Tim Lambert provided content and photos for this story