Comments on: The Men of Easy Company-Part III: Ron Speirs

By: Chris Kavanaugh

Chris Kavanaugh — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:08:17 +0000

“War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”- General Sherman
Lest our comments devolve like the fracas over Robert E.Lee; I should post my motivations of comment. History gives a patination to it’s subject. Those who would scrub to hard usually wind up removing the original finish too. It’s important to understand the past. It is also foolishness to judge from the convenience of a world largely made by those very people.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 23:00:35 +0000

“too well”

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:59:26 +0000

His stepson Marv Bethea considers Speirs’ strongest trait not to be bloodthirstiness, but conscientiousness. “He was a man who followed orders absolutely,” Bethea said. “No matter what needed to be done.”

That kind of excuse didn’t work to well at the Nuremberg trials, if I recall correctly.

By: Chris Kavanaugh

Chris Kavanaugh — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 17:47:02 +0000

What is history? people will reply ‘what happened.’ No, history is what the winners record. We don’t have any scrolls from the people the ancient israelis ethnically cleansed for their promised land. Speirs ‘may’ have executed german prisoners. We know Kampfruppe Peiper executed POWs at Malmedy and other atrocities. Again, the ‘fog of war’ might mention the Chenogne massacre. Few people know a Wisconsin senator under pressure from his heavy german-american constituency complained about the unfairness of the postwar trials of those SS men. His name was Joe McCarthy.
We need to think about these things while celebrating ‘the greatest generation.’ WHY? Well the grandsons and granddaughters of Easy company are in Iraq and Afghanistan, raised on John Wayne movies and thrown into a real ‘fog of war.’ the only difference is a PC climate of second guessing if you should shoot somebody trying to kill you and possibly face legal repercussions.
GOT MITT UNES or GOD’s ON OUR SIDE means little when your own people, from Senators on down aren’t.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:01:59 +0000

I hope I am like Speirs when I become an infantry officer in a few years. Total badass, fearless, what commander wouldn’t want a guy like Speirs that just gets the job done no matter the situation.

By: Hoss

Hoss — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:22:06 +0000

“How should Speirs be remembered?”
As a complete bad-ass, and a true patriot. Sounds like he was as good of a man as he was a soldier.

Hope this country is still churning-out men like him and Dick Winters.

By: Vladi

Vladi — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:39:47 +0000

Probably my favorite character from “Band of Brothers”.