Goodreads Reviews: Parachute Infantry

Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich by David Kenyon Webster

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After reading several other biographies of the Easy Company men, I noticed hardly any of them spoke about David Webster. Donald Malarkey considered him a terrible soldier and felt that his role in the mini-series was a waste. It is sad to read that there seems to be no love loss for David Webster who fought for his country and believed in the same ideals of freedom. Webster didn't sign up for the paratroopers for any general death defying purpose or to be with the best. Although an ardent patriot, Webster was a writer not a soldier. His part as a Screaming Eagle was to observe and record warfare and military, both of which he despised.

Born into a well to do family in New York, David Webster was enrolled in Harvard University studying literature and journalism when Pearl Harbor was hit. He signed up for the paratroopers and was sent to Taccoa to train. Actually, David wasn't originally in Easy Company. He seemed to be sent to whatever company needed him at the time. However, David spent a lot of time with the men of Easy Company.

Over the course of the war, Webster meticulously chronicles the events of a soldiers life in the 101st Airborne. From Georgia to England (where he was constantly getting into trouble), to the first jump in Normandy and the events of the disastrous Operation Market-Garden, where he was wounded and sent back to England for recovery. He missed out on Bastogne, but returned for Haguenau and then the eventual taking over of Hitler's Eagle Nest.

David's opinions on the military were less than positive. He despised the higher ranking echelons and the military rank that interfered with the real reason they were at war. However, he respected and revered the company of soldiers he fought with and held great admiration for Dick Winters.

After the war, David had tried to get his book published over the years, but it was constantly rejected. In 1962, David was killed in a shark fishing accident. Parachute Infantry was posthumously published in 1994, shortly after the publishing of Band of Brothers. In the mini-series, David was featured prominently in episode 8-The Last Patrol, where he returns from England, but due to missing Bastogne, he's treated like an outsider and must fight to win back the respect of his friends.

Possibly the most detailed of the Easy Company series, Parachute Infantry combines David's recollections of WWII while they were still fresh in a young man's memory. War in David's mind was not something to be celebrated. He wondered if people would ever truly understand the hardships, the fear, the sacrifice of the soldiers who left their homes and families. Dying at 39, David was young his whole life. He would never know the gratitude that generations hold for the men he wrote of.