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Chapter 19. Postwar Careers; 1945–1991

Summary 

The men of Easy Company think about their war years as their best years. Forty-eight men had given their lives, and more than 100 had been wounded, many of them severely and multiple times. Those who survived come out determined to transition from being professional soldiers to building happy, successful lives. Walter Gordon, Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere, Chuck Grant, Fred Heyliger, and Leo Boyle undergo long rehabilitations from their grievous injuries to make meaningful and productive careers.

Many other Easy Company men become teachers, including Ed Tipper, Leo Hashey, Robert Rader, Harry Welsh, Forrest Guth, Ralph Stafford, and Rod Bain. Still others go into building or making things. John Martin and Don Moone become multimillionaires. Carwood Lipton becomes director of manufacturing for eight glass factories in England and Scotland. Dick Winters follows his close friend Lewis Nixon into his father’s agricultural and industrial empire. John Martin creates a thriving construction company. Burton “Pat” Christenson spends thirty-eight years with the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, eventually becoming a supervisor and teacher. David Webster and Mike Ranney become journalists. Buck Compton is a police detective and then a prosecutor, finally becoming a judge. Skinny Sisk attempts to drown his war memories with alcohol until becoming an ordained minister.

A number stayed in the Army, Matheson with the 101st and Clarence Lyall and Robert “Burr” Smith with paratroopers. Ron Speirs becomes an Army liaison with the Soviet Army. Buck Taylor and Bob Brewer work for the CIA. Dick Winters serves in the Korean War.

Floyd Talbert’s scars never really heal, and he disappears from public life. Herbert Sobel also drops out of sight and holds a bitterness toward Easy Company that affects him for the rest of his life. He survives a suicide attempt and dies four years before the book is published.

Analysis 

The chapter functions as an epilogue to the Easy Company story just as the men’s individual stories are beginning anew. Trained as an elite squad of paratroopers, they must parlay their unique skills into careers that will span the rest of their lives. When they were pressed into service by their country, they emerged from the desperate times of the Depression to face a foreign enemy. They found out in basic training and jump school that they were going into great hardship and danger. They embraced the chance for meaningful service by volunteering for the 101st Airborne, deciding it was their best chance for survival. They became legendary for their effectiveness in battle fulfilling the strategic goals of their superiors.

Their lives after Easy Company show the legacy of this experience. They cherish the gift of survival given to them by their comrades-in-arms, some of whom themselves did not survive. The enormous cost paid by their fellow soldiers became a responsibility to make their sacrifice count. The joy of having made it, of being alive, also fueled purpose.

Their success in life after Easy Company proves these were no average human beings. Possibly the most impressive stories are those of the men grievously wounded. Walter Gordon battled back from paralysis to learn to walk and then become a lawyer and futures trader with a wife and five children. Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere both lost a leg, but both worked in industry and had children. Others had careers in construction, manufacturing, agriculture, jurisprudence, journalism, and spiritual direction.

The most poignant stories are the two men who returned physically intact from the war but whose minds could not recover. Talbert’s case of post-traumatic stress disorder and Sobel’s bitterness held them back from achieving rewarding lives with the people who loved them.

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