Anyone who has watched the HBO miniseries Band Of Brothers knows the name Dick Winters. He was the lieutenant played by Damien Lewis, and the central figure of the series. He led Easy Company and rose to the rank of major by the end of the war. He fought in Normandy (where he won the Distinguished Service Cross), Holland and Bastogne. Ten hours of television isn’t enough to give the true measure of a man, but by the end of the series all who watched it felt inspired by Dick Winters.

And so, it saddened me to learn that Dick Winters passed away last week. From what little I learned of him by watching the DVDs and reading a few recent interviews, his quiet passing, lacking all fanfare, would be just how he would have wanted it.

If you haven’t seen Band Of Brothers, I beg you…rent it, buy it, download it, steal it…but  watch it. Learn about Easy Company and the men who fought in it, especially the extraordinary ones like Dick Winters.