Rating: 
Summary: first hand account from a wonderful observer
Review: This book is remarkable because it was written as a firsthand account by a member of Easy Company, 506 PIR, 101st Airborne. For those of you who have been in hibernation, this is the parachute infantry company made famous by Stephan Ambrose's book "Band of Brothers" and the HBO series of the same name.What I found most compelling about "Band of Brothers" is the character development of all the wonderful men who made up this unit. David Webster was a friend and collegue of these men and his trenchant observations of them when they were young and engaged in the most crystallizing event of their lives snaps us back to that time and place. Webster displays affection and respect for his trench buddies, who for the most part come from modest to poor backgrounds, in stark contrast to his own Ivy League experience. He was there as a participant during some of the most compelling events in BOB: the Capt. Winters-led bayonet charge in Holland, the night patrol to capture prisoners that ended tragically for soldiers of both sides, the storming of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Through it all, Dave Webster maintains a clear, unsentimental prose in the recording of these events. Winner of two Purple Hearts, he is fatalistic about his own survival and those of his friends. Also enjoyable is his remembrances of the many small "luxuries" his squad indulged in between the mayhem: a hot cup of coffee, a warm shower, etc. We begin to appreciate the hardships these young spartans endured, and how easy the rest of have had it for that sacrifice. If you liked BOB, then this book is a "must-read". I can't recommend it highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent book!
Review: This is one of the very best books I have read. Webster was an excellent writer and an excellent observer of the horrors of battle and the chickens--t so common in military organizations. I cannot see how anyone who read the book could rate it less than a five star effort. Seattleatty's comment that the book was incomplete because it doesn't deal with important actions like the Battle of the Bulge fails utterly to recognize the that this was a personal memoir of Webster's service. He made it very clear that he was recovering from his leg wound and awaiting reassignment during the Bulge (page 120). Since he was very honest, he didn't include that heroic action as a part of his book. What he did omit was his impressions of the concentration camp that was liberated by E company (it was part of the Dachau system). I believe this was because it was too painful to think about, let alone, write about. I mourn Webster's far too early death, for he was a writer of a calibre far better than 99% of those being published today. Also, as an intellectual in a very non-intellectual setting, he was able to see the worst of war and being in the Army and translate what he saw into exquisite prose. This book is one of my all time favorites because it deals honestly with the petty tyranies of the army. As Professor Paul Fussell pointed out in "Wartime", chickens--it was the organizational theme of the WW 2 army. I would enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone, most especially to all purveyors of chickens--t.
Rating:
Summary: Oh wow.
Review: This is the first book I have read where war is truly the multi-faceted entity it is. Webster perfectly illustrates the horrors and the glory, but also the boredom, the humor, and the companionship. The battles are accurate and descriptive, putting you right in the scene. You get a true characterization of each of the men who appear throughout the book. Webster uses lots of a dialougue to make the book readable and the narration effective. If you ever wanted to know the facts of fighting in World War II, there is no other way to paint the best picture than to read this book. A great companion to Band of Brothers, whether you're watching it or reading it.
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Summary: Parachute Infantry's Journey to Publication
Review: Those of you who have read Stephen Ambrose's book, Band of Brothers, will remember David Kenyon Webster as a passionate and articulate member of Easy Company, the unit also featured in HBO's "Band of Brothers" miniseries. Webster wrote Parachute Infantry shortly after the end of World War II; it languished during the post-war years, when memoirs of regular soldiers were of little interest to publishers. After Webster's untimely death in 1961 at the age of 39, his widow continued to believe in the manuscript and approached publishers without success. After the late Stephen Ambrose came upon the manuscript while researching Band of Brothers, he recommended it to Louisiana State University Press. Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich, with an introduction by Stephen E. Ambrose, was published by LSU Press in 1994, just in time for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. The book received excellent reviews. Last year, Webster's widow, the long-time champion of Parachute Infantry, approached Dell Publishing, a division of Random House. Dell was a likely choice: it had published a mass market paperback of Webster's shark book, Myth and Maneater: The Story of the Shark, when the movie "Jaws" was released. She felt that Parachute Infantry could find a wider audience now, given the interest in HBO's "Band of Brothers." Dell was interested, and went back to the original manuscript to produce a revised and expanded edition of the book. In October 2002, this new edition of Parachute Infantry was published. It features over 100 pages of previously unpublished material, including 20 letters home, and restores some of the grittier language and actual names that were used in Webster's original manuscript. If you want to know more about the men of Easy Company, as seen through the eyes of one young private, read this book. Webster takes you through training at Toccoa, through jumps on D-Day and in Operation Market Garden in Holland, and to the last days of the war in Germany. It is an excellent companion piece to Band of Brothers (the book or DVD/video), and a powerful, unforgettable book on its own.
Rating: 
Summary: Honest
Review: Webster doesn't sugar-coat or glamourize anything to do with the war or the military, and that makes his memoir one of the best views into the mind of a veteran that there is out there.
He makes himself out to be no hero: he freely admits that he was scared, that he hated the army and its beaurocracy, and that he frequently skipped drill and other duties. Webster's ambivalent feelings toward the war are evident: he saw the need to defeat the Nazis, but was perplexed by the attitude of some of the "liberated" peoples, who saw American G.I.'s as "necessary evils." He eventually came to like the Germans more than anyone they had oppressed, and he describes in detail how the US soldiers of occupation behaved, sometimes as badly as the S.S.
At times the griping and moaning becomes intolerable, but overall this is a great depiction of war and warfare. Many details might seem needless, but they are included anyway, and they must be muddled through. The letters home at the end of the book are fantastic snapshots of history.
Another reviewer has mentioned that the Band of Brothers films use a lot of Webster's material, though creatively edited to fit the movies, and Webster deserved a lot more credit from the producers of B.O.B. I concur.
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