A Quiet Piece of Land

NPR's Morning Edition ran a 2 minute and 57 second spot right before my radio alarm turned off shortly before 7:00 AM this morning: Dick Winters, 'Band of Brothers' Inspiration, Dies. Major Richard "Dick" Winters, died January 2 in central Pennsylvania, a family friend confirmed Monday. He was 92. Winters' quiet leadership was chronicled in the book and television miniseries Band of Brothers. Winters wasn't sure he would live through the war. He told writer Stephen Ambrose that he knelt down and prayed after D-Day, "If somehow I manage to get home again, I promised God and myself that I would find a quiet piece of land someplace and spend the rest of my life in peace." Winters found that quiet piece of land. He bought a farm outside Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he spent the rest of his life.

My radio clicked off before the report had finished, and when I tried to catch the part I missed two hours later, there was a business report on at the end of the 8:00 to 9:00 AM hour of the news. I caught the report on the Web this evening. The report, in writing and audio, can be accessed by clicking here. 

Writing about leadership to American History magazine in 2004, Winters said, "If you can, find that peace within yourself, that peace and quiet and confidence that you can pass on to others, so that they know that you are honest and you are fair and will help them, no matter what, when the chips are down." (1)

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(1) From the New York Daily News, January 10, 2011. Click here. An expanded obituary about Dick Winters can be read here.