Clergyman's

Paratroopers capture the attention of people due to the fact that we jumped out of planes. But we didn't have it as hard, for instance, as the guys in the 1st or 4th or 29th divisions, who were grinding it out day after day in Europe, many of whom were not pulled back from the line to England after thirty days like we were. Or beyond that, the poor guys who served in the Pacific. I wouldn't have traded with the guys in the Pacific for anything. None of them got the recognition we did.
- Lynn Compton

But success in a military operation always feels short-lived. You shoulder your rifle and move on from there to the next battle.
- Lynn Compton

But success in a military operation always feels short-lived. You shoulder your rifle and move on from there to the next battle.
- Lynn Compton

But success in a military operation always feels short-lived. You shoulder your rifle and move on from there to the next battle.
- Lynn Compton

But success in a military operation always feels short-lived. You shoulder your rifle and move on from there to the next battle.
- Lynn Compton

But success in a military operation always feels short-lived. You shoulder your rifle and move on from there to the next battle.
- Lynn Compton

Just before Christmas, 1944, we got word that the Germans had closed the circle around Bastogne. This meant that the 101st Airborne was now completely surrounded by the enemy. Dick Winters said once that being surrounded was no problem for paratroopers- we were used to that. For me, it's hard to describe the feeling of isolation. The heavy fog meant that we were cut off from any help from the sky. We were alone, out in the woods, surrounded, with desperately low supplies. We were in day-to-day survival mode. Build the occasional fire. Melt some snow. Find something to eat. Cook it in your helmet. Stay out of harm's way. Just do what you need to do to get through the day.
- Lynn Compton

Although I was affected by the horrors of Bastogne, I do not believe I was clinically shell shocked, as the series portrays me. In real life, while I was hollering for the medic, trying to figure out what to do, I remember two distinct thoughts: How are we going to help the wounded guys?...Maybe this is the time the Germans are really going to get us all.
- Lynn Compton

Sometimes the greatest signs of strength are demonstrated when you relive the hardest parts of your life. I'm not a man easily given to emotion. I hate to cry. Yet there are three things that cause me to tear up today. One is when I talk about the love I have for America. The second I'll tell you about later in this book. The third is whenever I remember by dad's suicide.
- Lynn Compton

Constantly we anticipated a large-scale nighttime attack. But day after day, night after night, it never came.
- Lynn Compton