Episode 106

Visiting Band of Brothers Heroes at Arlington National Cemetery

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Band of Brothers at Arlington video

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Scott and Jenn paid a visit to Arlington National Cemetery to honor the real-life heroes of Easy Company, featured in the book and miniseries Band of Brothers. They explore the lives and service of five Easy Company veterans buried at Arlington, offering insights into the inaccuracies surrounding Albert Blythe's portrayal in the miniseries, and highlighting the contributions of Lt. Col. Robert Strayer, Arthur 'Art' Moserall, Forrest Guth, and Amos 'Buck' Taylor.

They go on to delve into each veteran's history, their actions during World War II, and the impact they had both during and after the war. The episode serves as both a tribute to these courageous men and a reflection on the lasting bonds of camaraderie forged in combat. The storytelling is enriched by insights into historical facts, personal anecdotes from the soldiers, and the significance of their final resting place in Arlington National Cemetery.

00:00 Intro

00:56 Honoring the Heroes of Easy Company at Arlington

01:59 Band of Brothers buried in Arlington National Cemetery

04:59 Deep Dive into Albert Blithe's True Story

09:05 Dick Winters on Albert Blithe

16:57 Exploring the Leadership and Legacy of Robert Strayer

25:20 Uncovering the Lesser-Known Easy Company Soldiers

27:14 Forrest Guth: The Engineer and Marksman

33:31 Remembering Tech Sergeant Amos Buck Taylor

39:18 Easy Company's Legacy


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Transcript
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.

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Talk With History
A Historian and Navy Veteran talk about traveling to historic locations

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About your hosts

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Scott B

Host of the Talk With History podcast, Producer over at Walk with History on YouTube, Editor of HistoryNewsletter.com
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Jennifer B

Former Naval Aviator turned Historian and a loyal Penn Stater. (WE ARE!) I earned my Masters in American History and graduate certificate in Museum Studies, from the University of Memphis.

The Talk with History podcast gives Scott and me a chance to go deeper into the details of our Walk with History YouTube videos and gives you a behind-the-scenes look at our history-inspired adventures.

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