David Webster
David Kenyon Webster (June 2, 1922 - September 9 1961) was an American soldier, journalist and author. During WWII he fought with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, featured in the book and TV series Band of Brothers.
WWII
Born in New York and educated at the Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut, he volunteered for the elite paratroopers in 1943 before having a chance to finish his studies as an English literature major at Harvard University. He originally trained with "F" Company, jumped on D-Day with Headquarters Company of the 2nd Battalion, then requested a transfer to "E" Company and served in the Company until discharged in 1945.
Webster was not a "gung-ho" GI. He hated the army. He was admittedly one of the worst marksmen in his company. He rarely volunteered for dangerous patrols. He had little ambition for promotion, finishing after 3 years with the rank of PFC. With his education and influential family, Webster could have been an officier stateside. But he wanted to be a "grunt", to see and document the war from a foxhole. He did love his fellow soldiers.
On D-Day, Webster landed nearly alone and off-course in flooded fields behind Utah Beach. He also jumped into Holland in Operation Market Garden. Later in this campaign, he was wounded in the leg by machine gun fire during an attack in the no-man's land called "the Island", near Arnhem. While recuperating back in England, Webster missed the Battle of the Bulge fighting and rejoined his unit in February of 1945.
Postwar
After the war, he went on to become a reporter with the Wall Street Journal and the L.A. Daily News. He was also interested in sharks, writing a book on the species, but was lost at sea off Santa Monica in 1961 while fishing for them.
His memoir, Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich, was first published in 1994. Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers book quotes liberally from Webster's then unpublished diary entries. Websters' trained eye, honesty, and writing skills helped give the book and movie a color and tone not available in other G.I.'s diaries. He had hoped to publish his work soon after the war was over. It was based on his many letters home and memories written down during and just after the war. But publishers were not interested in his kind of book at the time. He was however able to get a few short articles into magazines, such as the Saturday Evening Post.
Webster is portrayed by Eion Bailey in HBO's Band of Brothers. Episode 8, "The Last Patrol", features Webster as narrator when he rejoins his unit.
Bibliography
- . ISBN 0807119016.
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