A short note on Band of Brothers....
Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, young men from all walks of life flooded recruiting offices to defend their country. Some volunteered for a daring new elite unit the paratroops. Formed in July 1942, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army molded civilians into soldiers at Camp Toccoa, Ga. But only a fraction of those who started training were able to finish it, and those who did were "the cream of the cream." In September 1943, after 15 months of training, Easy Co. and their fellow paratroopers boarded the ship Samaria in New York for the long voyage to England; some veterans recall wondering, as they passed the Statue of Liberty, if theyd ever see it again. Many Easy Co. men would not over the next two years, the unit sustained 150% casualties as they dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy on D-Day, fought for the liberation of Holland, held the line in the Battle of the Bulge, and captured Hitlers mountaintop retreat, Eagles Nest, in Bavaria. Through it all, each veteran recalls that his reliance on his brothers-in-arms is the reason any of them made it back alive. For their repeated acts of courage and bravery, the entire division, as well as individual soldiers, earned multiple citations, including the Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Distinguished Service Cross. In 1998 and 1999, director-producer Mark Cowen and writer-producer Will Richter had been going over ideas for a World War II documentary, and subsequently became aware of the "Band of Brothers" miniseries project during a pitch meeting with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzmans production company, Playtone. Cowen proposed seeking out veterans of Easy Co. for background research for the miniseries, and making a companion documentary. They initially contacted former company commander Richard Winters and veteran Bill Guarnere, both of whom had been responsible over the years for keeping track of other veterans. Winters and Guarnere spread the word among their comrades, and for the next two years, Cowen and his crew travelled to 30 U.S. and ten European cities, as well as to annual Easy Co. reunions, creating an "on-camera oral history" of Easy Co., comprising stories not in historian Stephen E. Ambroses book, and in many cases, never told to the veterans own families. Cowen also accompanied veterans Guarnere and "Babe" Heffron on their emotional return to the forest battlefield at Bastogne, where Easy held the line REAL-LIFE VETERANS 3 in the Battle of the Bulge and Guarnere lost his leg. All told, Cowen shot almost 200 hours of interviews with 44 veterans, and some of their family members. "This has been a life-changing experience," says Cowen. "It wasnt just a project." More than half a century after World War II, the bonds shared by the men of Easy Co. remain strong. "You know those people better than you will ever know anybody in your life," notes veteran Shifty Powers. Every year since 1946, they and their families gather for a reunion, reaffirming their unique ties to each other. As for Easy Companys legacy, veteran C. Carwood Lipton asserts, "Every army unit thinks its the best. But we knew we were the best." WE STAND ALONE TOGETHER.The series is directed by Mark Cowen; written by William Richter; executive producers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg; co-executive producers, Gary Goetzman and Tony To; produced by Mark Cowen and William Richter; music composed by Jeff Pfeifer and Rob Pfeifer
