Dick Winters on PTSD from Bastogne "You Relive This with Flashbacks" | Band of Brothers

Comments · 137

• AN

  @andrewbird57 · 4 months ago

  My dad was captured at the Dieppe Raid in Aug 1942, followed by nearly 3 yrs in German POW camps. He suffered from PTSD for the rest of his life after the war, sinking into acute alcoholism. In 1972, when I was 15, he was in the hospital dying from an alcoholic's disease. One day toward the end I visited him at the hospital, he had slipped into delirium and started hallucinating. He was in ICU, his hands were strapped to his hospital bed. He kept trying to point to something in the distance, and said, "Look. Look! They're going to kill us!" He repeated this over and over. He was terrified. I knew of course he was reliving his capture, or a terrifying moment during his captivity. I knew then I would never forget what I was witnessing, and I never have. In 2017 when I was 60 I traveled to Dieppe for the 75th anniversary of the raid. There was a big ceremony, which included boards with b&w photos pinned to them, the Germans had photographed the aftermath of the raid extensively, it was a big propaganda coup for them. My bro in law, who never met my dad, was scanning the pics, he found one of 3 Canadian soldiers surrendering to the Germans on the beach. He thought one of the men looked like me. He called my sis over and she immediately it was my dad. That pic is now on the Web. I don't know for sure if that was the moment he was reliving in the hospital in 1972, you can see the fear on his face in the pic, but I assume it probably was.

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• LA

  @lazyriver53 · 3 months ago

  My dad fought in the Pacific during WWll. Like many others he tried to mask the painful memories with alcohol after the war. &nbsp;He told me his ship was kamikazed. &nbsp;I think I was in high school in the 1960&apos;s when after a few drinks he was talking to himself about his ship that was kamikazed. &nbsp;I didn&apos;t think too much about it because dad didn&apos;t talk about the horrors of war. &nbsp;<br><br>Well into my adult life I read an article about his ship, the USS Callaway. &nbsp;The article gave a horrifying account of the incident. &nbsp;The article said twenty three men became human torches. &nbsp;I can&apos;t imagine my dad in his late teens or early twenties seeing so many of his shipmates and friends engulfed in flames. &nbsp;It never left him.<br><br>Thankfully the last 12 years of his life he was sober. &nbsp;I hold onto the wonderful memories of those years. &nbsp;I understand and forgive the difficult years when he drank. &nbsp;He did the best he could.

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• MI

  @michaelwalker6121 · 3 months ago

  My father-in-law was with the 84th Inf Div during the Bulge. His company was overrun during the attack on Christmas and he and three other men hid out for three days in the basement of a house in the forest. Bad thing was, the Germans took the place over as a communication center, so he and his men were stuck there and unable to get out. The Germans pulled out but left two men behind. (my FI-L figured to watch the place in case they had to return) One of the Germans came down into the cellar and they men jumped him and silently killed him with a bayonet. The other came some minutes later to see why he had not come back and met the same fate. When my F-I-L and his men opened the door to head out, he saw that both the Germans were &quot;kids&quot;.( Probably green conscripts. No veteran would have come down those steps when his partner did not come back, he figured) The vision of those boys haunted him for many years after he returned t0 the states and later to civilian life.

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• JA

  @jamessoukup1601 · 3 months ago

  Thanks to these heroic men and those who have served, especially in combat.

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• OR

  @orindawinther3484 · 3 months ago

  My father&apos;s &nbsp;younger &nbsp;brother was killed during Battle of the Bulge, &nbsp;15 January 1945. At that time my dad was serving in the Pacific. He never talked about the war.

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• RO

  @rossmeldrum3346 · 4 months ago (edited)

  The last six months of my fathers deployment in WW2 was in 1945-46 as an MP at a mental hospital in either Nebraska or Kansas for soldiers suffering from PTSD. &nbsp;He said the nights were terrible hearing the screams of the soldiers over and over as they relived the horrors they went through. Even the little my father was exposed to as an MP affected him his entire life. Words cannot adequately convey my respect for these men and what they suffered and gave to our country. I will be forever in their debt.

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• PA

  @pastasbeard · 4 months ago

  Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I really wish I would have known more about these WWII vets. I did know a few Vietnam vets. one of my good friend&apos;s brother was a Vietnam vet, and I saw many times where he would just &quot;go somewhere else&quot; with a blank stare when we were over at his house. He was a good person, but at times he became VERY violent and you just had to leave. There was no getting him back from the war. He relived it every single day....the drugs and alcohol was just to keep it at bay. War certainly does things to a person, and as horrible it is to lose someone to it, I think it might be even worse to survive it and relive it every single day. I hope every single veteran is able to heal from what they have went through. Wish those that sent them to war did much, much more for them.

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• SC

  @scotishcovenanters · 3 months ago

  It’s a privilege to listen to this man. God bless you Mr Winters.

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• CO

  @codytotten9545 · 3 months ago

  The price of freedom is unmeasurable, my God wrap his arms around those who defended it

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• LI

  @libertine5606 · 3 months ago

  When Major Winters said it &quot;showed&quot; what it was like I am sure we all know that there is no way we could &quot;know&quot; what it was like. &nbsp;They were bad ass and I can&apos;t even imagine how bad they suffered. I am so glad that someone had the great idea to interview them. &nbsp;My dad was in the Pacific and passed in the early 2000s. &nbsp;He didn&apos;t, like most of them, talk much about it. &nbsp;They are slipping through our fingers.

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• DU

  @Duhhweed · 4 months ago

  I wish I could have met these veterans, history must live on or it’s bound to be repeated

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• AN

  @andyny29 · 3 months ago

  My grandfather served as the chief engineer on an Army ship out of San Francisco in WWII. According to my mother, he hardly ever talked about the war. However, at night he would have terrible nightmares and my grandmother would have to gently grab him and wake him up. He died when I was one year old so I never knew him but I have a picture of him holding me as a baby. Rest in peace to my grandpa and all the veterans who are no longer with us.

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