Death of a hero

Major Dick Winters died last week. He was 92.
He is best remembered from the book and television series "Band of Brothers." He was commander of Easy Company, 2nd Batallion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Winters won the Distinguished Service Cross shortly after D-Day in Normandy when he led an attack on a fortified German artillery position. The attack was so well planned and executed that it still is used as an example of how to do it at West Point and the Army Infantry School. He likely would have won the Medal of Honor except for strict limitations placed by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower on the number that could be awarded during the Normandy campaign. In recent years, a group of his friends and neighbors started a campaign to have President Obama award him the nation's highest award for valor.
After the war, Winters went into business with another Easy Company veteran until he was recalled to active duty for the Korean War. After he left the Army, he built a business and a farm. He retired in 1997.
Major Winters is an example of the World War II generation, the generation of my parents, the generation rightly called the Greatest Generation. After the war, Winters and his comrades returned to civilian life and worked hard to build a better society for themselves and their Baby Boomer children. By and large, they did a pretty good job. They used their wartime experience and lessons of teamwork to create the greatest economic boom in history. They built suburbs and the Interstate highways. They cured polio and put men on the Moon.
The generation is dying out now. It has been 66 years since D-Day, so the youngest veteran would have to be 83 or 84. They are coming to the end and when they are gone, we will miss them.