I was wondering if anyone knows what happened to lt. Dike/Dyke, not sure on teh spelling of his last name, after the failed attack on Foy and what happened to him after the war.

Thx,

C

Didn't he die in the BoB series?
--Wild Lorie

No, Lorie, he didn't die. He was relieved, and, as mentioned in the book, was later seen at a ceremony on the staff of Maxwell Taylor.

OK that's a little more info than I had before. I remember that there was not a lot mentioned after the Foy. And I do not recall his name ever being mentioned again in the years since.

C

He's not listed as being alive, and he doesn't seem to have been invited to any of the Easy Company reunions. I can't imagine he would attend, somehow.

I asked about this myself some time ago, and could'nt get an answer.

According to the BoB book, Lt. Dike later became General Taylor's senior aide, but after that I don't know. If he is now passed away, does anyone know the date of his death?

Elly

I was looking around the net for info on Dike. I thought I might stumble on an obit or something if he has passed away. I haven't found anything like that but I did stumble across this article. I got a kick out of the use of B O B as a lesson on decision making for the business world. However from the sound of the last paragraph they seem to be under the impression that Dike died in the Battle of Foy.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/1312/1312c...colpreston.html

I get amused at how the business world tries to put its deeds and behaviors in terms of football or warfare.

I'm sorry, but there is no comparison between corporate politics and the Battle of Foy. Nobody dies or has their body shredded to pieces in a staff meeting.

I wish civilians would stop acting like their corporate rubbish is like a war. It puts less-than-glorious activitied (corporate mergers, insider trading, stock manipulation) in terms of battle that demean and trivialize the struggles, heroism, sacrifice, and suffering of our service members.

I asked this question earlier. I felt like if in the serie, he died. I don't know if it's my translation in French but it seemed clear to me that he died in the serie (that's why I thought that there was a difference between the book and the serie). I remember Doug told me it wasn't the case, so.... as he's always right !

Now, nobody seems to know what he became" after after"...



All the best,

Morgy

It's easy to get the misimpression that Dike was killed in the attack at Foy from the production. We see artillery shells landing behind a haystack during Speirs's charge, plausibly where he left Dike. And this followed the warning that theyd' be killed if they stayed there. Later, Perconte says "Didja hear about Dike? Thank heaven for small mercies, huh." (Ambiguous: refers to his being relieved, but could have referred to his being killed). And, of course, Dike is among those who fade out in the chapel scene -- which just refers to his being gone from Easy, but could have meant he was killed.

But, we know from the book that he lived. And I don't think the production meant to suggest otherwise. It's just easy to infer from all the ambiguity that he was killed.

Thank you, Morgane, for the kind words. Doug

Kiwi, I think you missed the point. What business and government leaders are looking at and examining are the decision making processes that the military leaders are using especially in stressful situations. I remember in one of my management courses that over 120 of us students were loaded on buses so we could go to Gettysburg and analyze the three day battle. We examined the leaders and how they reacted to the changing battlefield. Chamberlin's initiative to attack at Little Round Top. Lee's failure to properly communicate his desires to his suborndinates (Stuart's futile ride to nowhere, Ewell's indecision to attack Culp's hill on the first day of the battle, Longstreet's failure and slowness to fully support Lee's decisions on attacking Little Round Top with Hood's Alabamians & Texans and in Pickett's charge on the last day, etc.), Meade's leadership during the battle and how he interacted with his subordinate corps and division commanders, Buford's blocking attack that forced Lee's forces to deploy before he was fully ready to attack the Northern Army. How the recent reorganization of Lee's army had a negative impact on how the battle was to be fought (Jackson killed at Chancellorsville and replaced by Ewell - an untested Corps Commander, Lee's army is changed from a two corps (Jackson & Longstreet) to a three corps force (Ewell, Hill & Longstreet), new division and brigade commanders appointed - some have never worked directly for Lee, Lee's artillery structure is reorganized). Lee lost Gettysburg because of command and leadership failures both from himself and his subordinates. Meade won because he was lucky and had some of the best subordinate corps and division commanders working for him. IMHO

No, I'm not referring how one applies the lessons of battles and conflict to use as management tools. Those techniques are extremely sound.

I'm referring to how corporate blowhards puff up their own achievements in the workplace to sound as if they had fought the Battle of Gettysburg.

I hope that's clear.

A-
It must have just looked like the hay stack he was hiding behind blew up, because that's the last we saw of him.... well, except when they showed the men of Easy in the church when Lipton was describing what happened to each man.... I have to go back and watch my DVD episode again, I guess...

I also thought Dike/Dyke died at the Battle of Foy but then later I read in the book that he became Gen. Taylor's aide so I guess that put me right!x

I thought this too. After reading this thread, I went back and rewatched the episode and the haystack gets hit behind Spiers on his way to Dike, not after relieving him. Kinda surprised me too. I had the same memory of the event.

Matt

I wonder if working for Gen. Taylor put a stop to his yawning and wandering...

Yeh where did he go? I mean just disappearing like that and yawning, did he have a medical problem?

Yeah, I am curious about what happen to him after foy.... I didnt hear anything else about him after that i dont think....

Kim

I think Dike yawned a lot because he suffered from extreme stress. Sounds funny given his apparent lack of involvement in the goings-on around him, but it could be true. If he was in a situation that stressed him too much, he might respond with yawning, fidgeting, speaking too loudly and quickly, etc. We see this in "Breaking Point," and I really think that was part of his problem. He was perhaps more unable than unwilling to interact with the men because the situation was simply too overwhelming for him. Hence his "walks" and lack of ability to make any kind of decisions. Place the man under ANY stress and he becomes agitated and unable to cope. Put him in a war, and we come up with the symptoms of extreme stress in a short period of time.

Some people simply cannot handle the pressures of leadership. This doesn't mean he wasn't an intelligent, capable human being under normal circumstances. He just shouldn't have been allowed to "lead" men in combat. Some people are just meant to sit behind a desk and administer, and others are meant to get in there and get their hand dirty. War brings out the best and worst in men. I don't believe it brought out the best in Norman Dike.

I agree. You always think, 'Man I would never do something like that' but when you are really there, with bullets flying by I think he just lost it. I dont know if I would do what he did when attacking Foy, but I have never been put in his place at that time so I wouldn't know.
Theres a saying that in war a mans brain turns to water and pours out his ears, and the rest of him is driven on instinct. I think is a pretty good saying. CYA!

It feels weird to be posting to a thread that hasn't gotten any posts in almost 2 years - but it shows the vets around here that I'm using the search function.

I just finished reading Band of Brothers again and was surprised when I read that Dike was still alive after the Battle of Foy. It sure seemed from the series that he was killed.

Has there been any new information about him lately??? What happened to him after the war? Did Easy keep in touch with him?

I just finished reading BOB today and Dike was Gen Taylor's aide. So maybe that was the connection they refer to in the series. Haven't heard anything about him since then though. But he wasn't killed at Foy.

I think Dike is in Holland.

Dike survived Foy (despite what TV showed) and was led to the rear by a medic. Winters saw him pass and ignored him. Dike was sent to the rear to assist Gen. Taylor at Div. HQ. In Dick Winters expressive words, "I hope to hell they found something he could do." No one from Easy kept tabs on him. This story is laid out in my biography of Dick Winters, "Biggest Brother." Hope this helps.

Thanks larrya, as I mentioned I caught the blib about Dike during my second reading of BoB. I feel embarrassed to say that I finished reading "Biggest Brother" a week ago. Maybe I'll catch the blib about Dike in "Biggest Brother" the second time around as well.

By the way - Great job on the book!

Why is that?
I don't understand what you mean with that .

Frank

Larrya, do you know where norman dike came from? (which state?) If you can tell me where he came from I can easy find out if he is still around or not.

Frank

If my memory serves me right, he is a New Yorker. Check the book where I inotrduce him. I think Dick gives a little insight to Dike's background (I am at work and do not have a copy of the book in front of me).

Frank, I think Jimmydoorknobs is winding you up! What are the walls that keep the sea from flooding the inland areas of Holland called?


Chris

I don't think they are called Normans.

But, he might be in France with rest of the Normans.

galesport, I think we are getting warmer.

Though I haven't been able to verify it, I believe Norman Dike is still alive. He, of course, doesn't respond to any BoB fanfare, but I've been told by some pretty solid sources of mine that he's still alive.

I don't know what he does, but I've been told he's still kicking around.

He's a native New Yorker who graduated from Yale. He began in Division HQ and transferred to Easy, as all of you probably know.

- Sam

It was just brought to my attention that Norman Dike did indeed die a few years ago. The Yale Alumni association has him listed as deceased.

I was also told, via PM, that Easy Company vets would have been able to point that out. My bad. As I said above, I wasn't able to verify him as alive but that sources had told me he was. Those sources, about 80 percent of the time, are right on the money about these things.

Just wanted to update everyone. Sorry for the misinformation. I try not to lead everyone off with false information.

- Sam

I'm going to jump in here late with another angle on Dike.

As we know, Dike was sent to the 506 PIR to get some command time. Since he wasn't one of the assigned officers of the regiment he obviously had friends in division who could pull strings and have him assigned there (or anywhere else).

You might be asking why he needed command time, especially in a line infantry unit involved in constant warfare. Dike was a "ringknocker," a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point. Just that fact gives one connections with a brotherhood that rules the Army and I suspect that his ties went deeper. Lieutenants don't usually get to the upper levels of division staff without a helping hand. Even with all of that pull Norman Dike needed a minimum of time in command of a unit. He was commissioned into the Infantry and to get to field grade (MAJ, LTC & Col) and above all officers had to command an Infantry company while a lieutenant or captain. Having served as commander of a unit on the line at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge would lend competitive advantage when the promotions board met, in four or five years, to decide which few of the many waiting captains gets the gold leaves.

Just being in the slot wouldn't be enough.... Dike would have to perform well so that his OER (Officer Evaluation Report) would reflect not just good, but outstanding behavior. A bad or even mediocre OER could affect his career by postponing or preventing promotion and even separating him from the service.

Dike worked under Dick Winters, who then would rate his performance on his OER. There's no way that Captain Winters would give Dike a satisfactory rating given his dismal behavior as E Co CO. I would also guess that Dick Winters would not then or now discuss Dike's OER, which was confidential. We now wonder whether the rating was:
1. satisfactory, enabling Dike to return to the world of the "perfumed princes";
2. not satisfactory, but changed by Winters, Strayer or Sink because of strong pressure from above, or;
3. The rating was low, but General Taylor or one of the other "princes" saved Dike in spite of the bad OER.

I'm guessing that Dike stayed a captain through the end of the war, but left the service within a few years because his faulty behavior caused other OERs to be written that reflected his less than stellar performance.

Dike was a Yale garduate and the son of a New York State Supreme Court Judge.

Oops. I mispoke (miswrote?). I don't know where I fished the thought that Dike was a West Pointer, but I guess I'll admit to a wee senior moment. I'll take my time writing replies from now on (and I'll try to pry my cranium out of my rectal defilade, to use an artillery term)

Dike's father being a justice certainly equals a fair amount of influence in and out of government. That kind of "juice" could, I think, certainly provide some career protection for a mediocre officer.

Lt. Jones, played by Colin Hanks, was the West Pointer. After one or two patrols, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and transferred upstairs. Both Jones and Dike seem to have had protective hands over their careers, but for different reasons.

Jones probably did okay. He seems to have shown the right attitudes and demeanor in his brief time with Easy, and I expect he had a solid career, being a West Pointer.

"Foxhole Norman," however, probably did not stay in after V-E Day, and being a Yalie and judge's son, resumed his civilian career, with the suitable embellishment on his resume of having been a paratroop officer at Bastogne.

However, I think Dike's civilian subordinates would follow him anywhere...but only out of curiousity.

I searched the Internet and found a wedding announcement posted in Dec 1986 in the NY Times naming the father of the bride as Norman S. Dike of Rolle, Switzerland. It went on to name the bride's grandfather as Norman S. Dike, deceased NY State Supreme Court Justice. This fits with Lt Dike's connections and being from New York. Also the age of his daughter in the wedding announcement. From Rolle, Switzerland 20 years ago to today is a lot of unknown.

For the wedding annuncement, see http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C1A960948260

Best regards,

Mark

It should be borne in mind that in the New York judicial system, the "Supreme Court" is a trial court of general jurisdiction. It is where trials are held, and where appeals originate. New York's highest court is the Court of Appeals.

Whatever Maxwell Taylor's other accomplishments may have been, he was certainly a consumate politician. WHAT COMES THROUGH both the book and the series is several examples of his (or at least somebody-who-appeared-to-be-able-to-speak-for-him's favorites) being given a quick tour in a line regiment so he could get his CIB (which Taylor could never have gotten, unless the awards went higher than they did in Vietnam) and fill in a "combat command" hole in his record for future promotion purposes. In Vietnam it was called "ticket punching" and came to be almost SOP that an officer would spend so many months with a combat unit and so many months on staff. (Also, in the '60s a tour in Special Forces was considered indispensible, and a lot of officers went through who should never have been in the Group. In the '70s such a tour was said to be the kiss of death, and it was not easy to get officers -- but those we got really wanted to be there!)

Mike

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Lt. Jones survived the war only to be killed in a non-combat accident while on occupation duty in the fall of 1945. I'll try to find my source again.

Jones was involved is a car accident in the Berlin area. he survived the accident and was set to return home. He was to undergo an minor operation before he left for the states. While under anethsesia, he passed away suddenly.

If I was Dike and I did as poorly as he did in action I must agree with the earlier post, I'd get out of the Army the first chance I got.

Interesting find.

I learned that not only the whereabouts of ‘our’ Norman S. Dike are foggy, the info about his father, the judge, is far from complete either. This is what I found on the “political graveyard” about judge Norman S. Dike (sr.).

Dike, Norman S. — of Brooklyn, Kings County, N.Y. Justice of New York Supreme Court 2nd District, 1925-27. Presumed deceased. Burial location unknown.

He's registered on this site as well. Just go to 'wwii registry', use the 'search' button and type: Norman Dike.