Whenever Dad makes a public appearance, there are some questions that we get a lot of…so I suggested to Dad that we restate and answer some of the same questions on the blog for the benefit of our internet audience. Dad thought it was a good idea…so “hear” we go…

Question #1 : “Is the Band of Brothers mini series very accurate?”

Answer: Yes and No.

The producers of the mini series made pain-staking efforts to be as accurate as possible. But there are various limitations to what can be done in any movie production.

During the writing of the original book and during scriptwriting and production of the mini series, original Easy Company members and family members were consulted all the way through. The series of events that took place are quite accurate…a lot of the individual events that took place are accurate,…the way most of the men remember them happening…but because it is impossible to film in every possible location, where all the events took place, certain minor events or details that the producers did not want to leave out because they enriched the overall story may have been shown in a location or a different order from where and when the events actually took place…for example near the end of the series when Winters meets up with Sobel and Sobel fails to salute…the event really happened…but in a different time and place.

Another way the producers did an excellent job in portraying the events surrounding Easy Company’s involvement in the war, was with the casting. The actors who played the men, overall, did an outstanding job of taking on the personalities of the men they played. Fortunately, a lot of the men of Easy were still alive at the time of filming, so many of the actors had the opportunity to get to know them personally, and it showed in the final product.

In addition, the actors, in general, were well cast appearance-wise in relation to the character they played. Dad has mentioned to me more than once his reaction when he first walked into the reception hall at the Emmy awards. He spotted Ron Livingston (who played Lewis Nixon) sitting next Grace Nixon out of the corner of his eye and ended up doing a double take.

There are of course a few mistakes, for example, at the end of episode 3, it is incorrectly stated that Albert Blythe died shortly after the war. In fact he served in the Korean war and did not pass away until 1967. Some of these types of errors were as a result of the guys losing touch.

Question #2 : “Were you (Ed Pepping) depicted in the mini series?”

Answer: No.

There are a variety of reasons why Dad and many of the other members of Easy had little or no “screen time.” For Dad, one reason he was not a part of the Band of Brothers book and the mini series is that he stayed away from the reunions and the most of the other members due to guilt. He felt that because he was not allowed to rejoin the unit for the Holland jump, due to injuries, that he had let the unit down. So when Steven Ambrose interviewed the men of Easy for the book, most of them didn’t know he was alive. Dad did keep in touch with Al Mampre a little, since they had been such good friends and fellow medics. It was Al that encouraged Dad to show up for the Emmy awards. As a matter of fact, there were quite a few such cases. These missing Easy members that showed up at the awards ceremony ended up becoming the foundation of the sequel book, “We Who Are Alive and Remain, Untold Stories from The Band of Brothers.”

Another reason for the limited screen exposure of many of the members was simply time. There were about 140 men in Easy company at Toccoa and 366 men listed as members of the unit throughout the course of the war. About 50 men were killed in action. An additional 100 or so were injured and/or transferred out. It was simply not possible to cover all of the amazing stories these men had to tell in a 10 episode mini-series.

One thing I have noticed however is that a lot of stories were told without a name being put to them. For example, even though Dad and Al Mampre were not mentioned by name in either the original book or the mini-series, many of the things they did were mentioned in passing and as part of a larger event. For example, Al Mampre was shot in the leg during Market Garden by a sniper while helping a trooper who had been shot in the neck. Although Al’s name is not mentioned in the original book or mini-series, part of the actual event is depicted in the mini-series…if only for a few fleeting seconds.

Question #3 : “Did you know/train with Capt Sobel/Major Winters etc?”

Answer: Yes.

Dad was what they refer to as a Toccoa man. He was there with the 506th from the beginning until being transferred out just before Market Garden, since he was no longer considered fit for combat at that time (drug him out kicking and screaming mind you). As we have mentioned elsewhere, the medics trained separately from the individual companies as part of the medical detachment but were assigned duty to the individual companies. Dad, Al Mampre and Earnest Oats were the medics assigned to Easy at Toccoa. They ran Currahee in the heat under the prodding of Sobel and Dad remembers the spaghetti adventure very well. Dad was particularly fond of Moose Heylinger and referred to Liebgott as “Shadow” as he had an affinity for disappearing and reappearing in the dark.

After being separated from Easy in September of 1944, he spent the remaining time working in the seriously wounded ward of the army hospital. Since he had himself survived catastrophic injuries, and having medic training, the doctors found him to be a particularly good medical assistant and nurse. He was able to encourage the other GIs in a way no one else could, having come back from near death himself.