Major Dick Winters, commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Holland, 1944
“To be a good leader, you must do everything in your power for the good of your men and to train your men with the goal in mind of making them the best unit possible, better than any other platoon, company, battalion.”
“To accomplish this, you must be like a good mother taking care of her children. You must set a good example, be the first one up in the morning and the last to go to bed at night. To accomplish this you must also be like a good father, setting a good example of being up front and visible with the men before an attack and staying with the attack until it is over.”
The ultimate test of a leader, Winters said, can be found in “his actions when his unit is caught and pinned down by a heavy concentration of mortar or artillery fire. When this happens most men will freeze stiff as a board. They can’t move. They can’t think. They are frozen by a fear of death as they wait for the next incoming concentration. The good company commander will be able to think and reason under this fire. His inner sense of timing will tell him that was the last concentration, the last round. As soon as it lands he will be out of his foxhole immediately, on his feet, walking around, talking to his men—‘Is everybody all right? Be on the lookout for an attack. Let’s get moving.’”