Now both 87, the veterans are fighting together again, this time for a Normandy monument that honors their former commander, Richard Winters, and leadership of the Americans on D-Day.
"He was a good man and a good officer," Guarnere said of Winters, who has been in ill health in recent months and no longer gives interviews. "He knew what he was talking about and took care of his men. A monument is a wonderful idea."
Heffron said he "had the utmost respect for Winters. He carried himself like an officer and looked the part. He spoke to you like he knew what he expected out of you."
Winters, 92, of Hershey, was a first lieutenant with E or Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division when he and his men dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day to successfully knock out German artillery trained on the Normandy beaches. The commander later rose to the rank of major and received the Distinguished Service Cross.
The proposed bronze statue - depicting Winters running with an M1 Garand rifle - is expected to be erected in 2011 at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, near the Utah Beach and Sainte-Mere-Eglise. It would sit atop a stone base bearing names of the units that fought at Normandy and include a quote from Winters: "Wars do not make men great, but they do bring out the greatness in good men."
"This is not a monument just for Major Winters," said Tim Gray, a documentary filmmaker (timgraymedia.com) and Kingston, R.I., resident who has been leading the monument effort. "We used him [Winters] as an example of what leadership was on D-Day."
Gray began raising tax-deductible contributions for the project about a month ago, and has at least $25,000 toward the $400,000 needed to erect the monument and produce a film that will focus on the effort.
