“Currahee!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwz5JT2KnT4
This scene from Band of Brothers introduces the soldiers who are war fighting heroes in the operations of the war. As opposed to the genuine factual martinet that was Captain Sobel (a trainer, and destined for nowhere rubberstamped career- certainly no leader, ever).
Shames was there in Toccoa, GA for all of this, and Normandy and all the way to Obersalzberg & the mop up of the nazi redoubt and Eagle’s Nest.
RIP, sir. Well done!
Training others is a difficult job. Captain Sobel might have been the best man for that job. A winning army needs different skills for different jobs: training, logistics, planning, and fighting, to name a few.
Hard, tough training can save lives during combat.
Don’t miss my prior post.
Sobel is something of a tragic character. He was in some ways a victim of his own insecurity and pettiness. Stephen Ambrose credits Sobel with toughening up Easy Company, even if only in their hatred and disdain for him. Ambrose’s evaluation is based on the opinion of the men of Easy Company themselves. Sobel was a tough SOB, he trained as hard as the men he commanded, but he lack the personality traits of a good leader, especially a combat leader. Nevertheless, he made real contributions to the war effort, it is too easy to at this distant remove to denigrate him for his failings.
Sobel jumped into Normandy as part of regimental headquarters S-4, earning a Combat Infantryman Badge.
From wikipedia:
In 1970, Sobel shot himself in the head with a small-caliber pistol in an attempted suicide.[10] The bullet entered his left temple, passed behind his eyes, and exited the other side of his head. Both of his optic nerves were severed by the shot, leaving him blind.[10] Soon afterward, he began living at a VA assisted-living facility in Waukegan, Illinois. He died there of malnutrition on 30 September 1987.[10][11] No memorial services were held for him.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Sobel