RIP Sam Gibbons, Democratic Rep, 501st PIR, Schlitz drinker
Wanted to highlight the death of Sam Gibbons here today as well, since he passed yesterday. He was an irascible old bastard, and as left wing as the day is long, but man did that dude amuse me. He was much like Mr Rangel in that regard, who I’ve loved ever since a 3 minute ride on the trolley under the Capital one day when he berated me with a smile.
Sam M. Gibbons, a 17-term Democratic congressman from Florida who championed free trade and government support of health care, castigated Republican colleagues for “whimpering” and for six months was chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, died Wednesday at his home in Tampa. He was 92.
He was a student at the University of Florida and a member of R.O.T.C. when he was called to Army duty as a second lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division. The night before the invasion of Normandy, he parachuted behind enemy lines at Utah Beach and led troops in a bloody battle. He won [Received you dumbasses] a Bronze Star and other medals.
There’s a pretty good post up at this site that talks more about him.
In Gibbons’ memoir I Was There – he described his experiences in WWII. It is peppered with details like how he replaced his gas mask with two cans of Schlitz beer before the D-Day drop.
“So with all this gear on me (the same for about 12,000 others), I was the third man to step out of plane #42, and dropping 800 feet to start what some have called ‘The Longest Day.’”
The story of how the paratroopers were dropped off course and scattered across the French countryside is widely known. Gibbons and a few other paratroopers managed to pull together and planned an attack on a nearby town.
“At the end of this council I brought out my two cans of beer, which we shared,” Gibbons wrote. “When the cans were empty we decided to leave them in the middle of the road as a monument to the first cans of Schlitz consumed in France and moved on.”
Chuck Oldham of Defense Media Network wrote that Gibbons’ story of the Allied landing in Normandy has always stuck with him:
Of all those stories … Gibbons’ story, written in a self-deprecating tone as it was in I Was There and popularized in Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation, remains one that has always struck me as somehow being indicative of the American paratroopers’ fight during that early morning of June 6, 1944, with a young captain abruptly thrust into an unexpected leadership role, he and his men dropped far from their objectives, lost and improvising their way through a night of combat, and ‘marching toward the sound of gunfire.’
The young captain was with the 101st as it helped hold Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and captured Hitler’s “Eagles Nest” facility.
I hope he and CSM Plumley are in Valhalla right now, bickering over a few cold ones. I’m going to buy one Schlitz on the way home, and consume in his honor. (At home mind you, not while travelling.)
UPDATE: Just a page from Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation discussing Mr. Gibbons:
Category: Politics
Maybe Congress would be less screwed up if there were more people like him in office. I might disagree with some of his politics, but I can’t help but respect a man like that.
RIP Congressman Gibbons, and crack open a can or three of “tasty” Schlitz up there…
@1 It’s because men like this are Americans first and liberal or conservative second. They understand they might not like each other or like the opinions of the other fellow, but they also understand that both want a better nation for the next generation. It allows them to work with people they don’t much care for, or whose opinions they vehemently disagree with to arrive at a position they can each live with and move forward.
RIP Congressman, America thanks you for your service.
Sounds like the ole Lefty served his country from beginning to end. I might not like the man’s politics, but I have to respect his service.
A fine example of the greatness of free society, and the men and women who know what it takes to create, preserve, and promote it. RIP.
I first read that as “PBR” and then “Schlitz” and thought, Man, this is an old school beer lover. Well I was still right. LOL
I like the thought of him and CSM Plumley sharing a few beers in Valhalla – they both came from a generation that put politics behind them when it came time to serve their country, and say what you will about his political leanings, he had the guts to put on a uniform and fight for what he believed in.
Politics stopped at the water’s edge. Amen to that. May not have agreed with a lot of what he stood for politically, but you can’t help but respect a man who put that aside for his brothers in arms.
How did he manage to get beer at the front line? That’s a story in itself.
Ex-PH2: the 82nd and 101st flew in from England and jumped into France. I believe beer was reasonably easily available in England.
What I want to know is how he managed to keep 2 cans hidden from his buddies and his men while they were in isolation long enough to swap it for his gas mask. (smile)
RIP, sir. We all recognize and honor the real deals among us. I never have and never will need to agree with those who serve honorably to value that service. Thank you.
(There is a lesson in there for you, Nicole, if you are willing to open your eyes to see it.)
Rest in Peace, Soldier.
@9 — Hondo, beer, yes. But Schlitz? From Milwaukee?
Yeah, and I’d like to know how he kept it hidden, too, and are any of those old crickets around any more?
I couldn’t help but laugh reading about the beer in the mask carrier. Seems like some things never change. Among my other duties in Nam, I was the battalion CBR NCO and therefore responsible for keeping tabs on CBR equipment. When Field Force HQ notified us of an impending command maintenance inspection (yes, even while we were in active combat operations) the colonel called me in and told me to get the battalion’s CBR equipment ready.
What followed is a story unto itself, but one discovery was that while almost every trooper in the battalion had his gas mask carrier, virtually none had their masks. Those carriers were an excellent augmentation to our regular, undersized, load-bearing packs and the team rucks. You could find everything in those carriers from socks to smokes, books to beer, but no gas masks. When the wind caused our own tear gas to blow back on us, we toughed it out and no officer or NCO ever raised the issue of the missing masks, because we had shucked ours as well.
There is no more enterprising practitioner of field expediency than the American infantryman, as I’m sure CPT Gibbons and CSM Plumley would agree.
RIP both of you old warriors…
Poe, when I went to PLDC I took everything out of my Pro Mask and shoved a woobie and a poncho in there, and thought I would be hard by not bringing anything else to the field. Then some Civil Affairs guys came out with A bag full of shit, even cots. Turned out, we never carried our stuff out of this cantonment area, and I froze balls on the ground all night while they serenaded me with ridicule. Last time I ever traveled light at an Army school.
Poetroper, someone once told me that there was a legend about a case of beer buried or hidden somewhere up at Khe Sanh. Did you ever here about that?
TSO, for pete’s sake, define a woobie, please! Thanks.
Ex-PH2, a woobie is also known as a poncho liner because, like a child with a teddy bear, no infantryman lets his poncho liner get too far away from him because you never can tell when you might be able to grab a few winks.
Ex-PH2: Schlitz I can believe in England. And possibly even from Milwaukee vice brewed locally under license. The US Army imported huge amounts of off-the-wall supplies to the ETO during World War II.
Hell, the US even brewed beer in either North Africa or Italy after landing, under a formula provided by Budweiser. That’s documented in one of Rick Atkinson’s excellent books about World War II – An Army at Dawn (North Africa) or The Day of Battle (Sicily/Italy).
Jonn, to be fair, my girlfriend and the kids all have “woobies”, but they’re actually closer to “binkies”, but with TSO, not really sure there’s a difference?
(runs and hides)
Wait, TSO? You didn’t even have your Army issued wool blankie & *long handle* underwear? Good Lord, son!
Thank you, all of you, for answering my questions, especially Jonn and Sparky regarding different kinds of woobies. And I did not know about the crickets, which are like the clickers we used to get as stocking stuffers at Christmas, until now.
Hondo, there are so many details missing about things like Schlitz beer in England,and none of it ever gets into the history books. If that kind of thing were taught in schools, don’t you think more kids would be interested in history?