Lt col speirs

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In a military career spanning 22 years, Speirs has been lauded as a hero, embroiled in controversy and celebrated in both print and TV. This website looks at the real man behind the reputation. They were married in 5 and lived in Dalmuir, just outside Glasgow. By this time, Robert was a journeyman engineer. He was responsible for fitting out the large guns on the Royal Naval battleships which — according to family legend, included HMS Hood.

Lt col speirs

The paratroopers had only rifles, machine guns, and grenades with which to conduct the battle until armored forces arrived. This article appears in: Winter Swirls of black smoke billowed high above the steeples and splintered roofs as Lieutenant Ronald Speirs surveyed the stucco exteriors of storefronts and dwellings pocked by the scars of urban battle. Carentan, the once ornate French commune nestled along the banks of the Douve River, was a charred and blistered shell—a ghostly visage of its former self. Local citizens had long awaited the hour of liberation from Nazi tyranny. Deliverance thundered forth from a devastating barrage of heavy naval guns, American artillery, and mortars raining ruin upon their historic community. Such was the terrible price of evicting the despised German occupiers. Speirs, a Dog Company platoon leader, meandered through the coils of Normandy brush, maintaining a watchful eye on the frontline. His bulky Thompson submachine gun was casually slung over his shoulder. A displaced victim of a petty officer rivalry, the lieutenant was a relative newcomer to Dog Company.

The terrain before them grew steeper, further slowing the progress of the encumbered Headquarters Company, and thus the whole formation. Ronald Speirs. He took part in the battle of Carentan and was moved lt col speirs hold the line at a field outside the town.

He was initially assigned as a platoon leader in B Company of the 1st Battalion of the th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Speirs was reassigned to D Company of the 2nd Battalion before the invasion of Normandy in June and later assigned as commander of E Company during an assault on Foy, Belgium , after the siege of Bastogne was broken during the Battle of the Bulge. He finished the war in the European Theater as a captain. Speirs served in the Korean War , as a major commanding a rifle company and as a staff officer. He later became the American governor for Spandau Prison in Berlin.

In a military career spanning 22 years, Speirs has been lauded as a hero, embroiled in controversy and celebrated in both print and TV. This website looks at the real man behind the reputation. They were married in 5 and lived in Dalmuir, just outside Glasgow. By this time, Robert was a journeyman engineer. He was responsible for fitting out the large guns on the Royal Naval battleships which — according to family legend, included HMS Hood.

Lt col speirs

In a military career spanning 22 years, Speirs has been lauded as a hero, embroiled in controversy and celebrated in both print and TV. This website looks at the real man behind the reputation. He had served 22 years in the military and his career had spanned one of the most turbulent and dangerous periods in human history. Commissioned into the Army at 22 years of age, Speirs joined the paratroopers — a new concept for an infantry fighting force — which at that time had only been used by the Germans and was originally disliked by US Army Commanders. Over million people served in the military and countries placed their entire economic, industrial and scientific efforts towards winning the war. It was a war which saw the mass killing of civilians and resulted in over 60 million dead — the equivalent of 2. Added to this, World War II was the first and only war in which nuclear weapons have been used. Speirs was part of that war. He parachuted behind enemy lines, directly into hostile territory on D-Day.

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In his letter Speirs states he is 71 years old. It is unclear if Speirs had a life partner between his divorce in and final marriage — which took place in when he was 67 years old. Speirs, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States from October to March His final assignment in the Army was as a plans officer in The Pentagon. George Luz. The spectacle presented a hellish montage that only further aggravated high anxieties. Corporate Contact Us. After taking the town he talked to First Sergeant Lipton about his supposed rumor and how it was just that; a rumor. The Germans had largely left the Americans free to roam into position. War Heroes. This division required soldiers to push their physical and mental limits; one of their staple conditioning exercises involved running the three miles up and the three miles down the steep slopes of Mt. Silver Star [6]. Close order drill was taught by two regular army officers.

He was initially assigned as a platoon leader in B Company of the 1st Battalion of the th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Speirs was reassigned to D Company of the 2nd Battalion before the invasion of Normandy in June and later assigned as commander of E Company during an assault on Foy, Belgium , after the siege of Bastogne was broken during the Battle of the Bulge.

Our food consisted of K rations with which we had jumped, and a resupply of the same after contact with the beachhead was made. Speirs told the man that he was too drunk to perform his duties and that he should remove himself to the rear. He advised them to better fortify their position but they said 1st Lt Dike already said they were suitably fortified. Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Clusters. His coolness under fire, coupled with his unwavering fortitude, more than warranted such recognition. World War 2. This website looks at the real man behind the reputation. Sadly, he suffered from emotional trauma the rest of his life. Later on during the war whenever the st Airborne would appear someplace, the average German infantryman was definitely afraid of us. Although hit hard, Speirs and his men accomplished their mission Such ugliness was cast aside on June 20 when over 1, paratroopers of the st Airborne, and an equal number of civilians, convened in the town square of Carentan. As a result, Robert saw many men leave to pursue opportunities abroad in America. When the blade punctured the rotting flesh, a noxious gas sprayed into the air. When in contact with the enemy at night, one-half of the unit must be alert and in position to repel attacks. His unfazed heroics repeatedly inspired those comrades otherwise gripped by fear or self-doubt.