http://www.dday-overlord.com/Bobeng.htm

Scroll down and look at the pic of Winters and Nixon sitting on a jeep. Nixon is wearing a CIB. I thought only infantry MOS could earn CIB. Nixon was s2 intell. Is it because he was assigned to an infantry unit? Or is this a mistake. I mean Nix himself admits he never even fired his weapon.

Specific eligibility requirements for the C.I.B.

(1) A soldier must be an Army infantry or special forces Officer (SSI 11 or 18) in the grade of colonel or below, or an Army enlisted soldier or warrant officer with an infantry or special forces MOS, who subsequent to 6 December 1941 has satisfactorily performed duty while assigned or attached as a member of an infantry, ranger or special forces unit of brigade, regimental, or smaller size during any period such unit was engaged in active ground combat. Eligibility for special forces personnel (less the special forces medical sergeant) accrues from 20 December 1989. Retroactive awards for special forces personnel are not authorized.

(2) A recipient must be personally present and under hostile fire while serving in an assigned infantry or special forces primary duty, in a unit actively engaged in ground combat with the enemy. The unit in question can be of any size smaller than brigade. For example, personnel possessing an infantry MOS in a rifle squad of a cavalry platoon in a cavalry troop would be eligible for award of the CIB. Battle or campaign participation credit alone is not sufficient; the unit must have been in active ground combat with the enemy during the period.

(3) Personnel with other than an infantry or special forces MOS are not eligible, regardless of the circumstances. The infantry or special forces SSI or MOS does not necessarily have to be the soldier's primary specialty, as long as the soldier has been properly trained in infantry or special forces tactics, possesses the appropriate skill code, and is serving in that specialty when engaged in active ground combat as described above. Commanders are not authorized to make any exceptions to this policy.

(4) Awards will not be made to general officers nor to members of headquarters companies of units larger in size than brigade.

*When Lt. Nixon jumped from the transport plane in Normandy; he qualified...

Funny you should ask this, as I just watched "Why We Fight" (again) last night. I watched Nixon with a new eye to the subtleties of Livingston's performance. The main scene that references this CIB, has Nix riding in a jeep just as Luz and Perco leave the german farm with eggs and a slap on the cheek. They say, "Isn't that Cap'n Nixon? -- Why's he all trussed up?"

Next , Nix is in a room getting out of his jump gear when Winters is heard calling him. At which point Nix tells him about the trajedy he'd just lived through. Winters then comments on how he qualifies for a CIB, at which Nix says, "...even thought I've never fired my gun,"

And so forth.

So yeah, with great attention to as much accuracy as possible, I'd say he did recieve this award.

Are you sure about that one? According to what you posted he still would have had a primary or secondary specialty as an infantry man. Unless he went to infantry school before intel, I don't see how he qualifies. I suppose he could have been an infantry officer assigned to the intel position. I do know that happens quite often. Come to think of it he does have infantry branch crossed rifles on his uniform I think. So I guess that seals it if thats the case.

Steve, Bingo.

Nix was an infantry officer, who went through Toccoa as such. While I don't know how the MOS works these days, my sense is that Nix would have stayed an infantry officer, no matter what his staff assignment was at any given time. I don't think he ever went through an intell school, and I'd be surprised if that was unusual for the improvised battalion staffs of the time.

Good question, though.

It is interesting to note that the soldiers on the ground in Iraq after Pres Bush declared major combat operations over are receiving the CIB. Is it still considered a combat zone despite the declaration of the President? I am certainly not disparaging the soldiers right to the CIB, quite the contrary, but I am curious.


Cheers!

Mark

Mark, I don't think there is any talismanic significance to a Presidential announcement that "major combat operations are over." Any more that there was to comparable announcements by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Johnson, and Nixon.

There is no mutual cease fire or peace treaty. The announcement does not amount to a cessation of hostilities or an end to combat. Accordingly, I don't think it affects in any way the reality on the ground that a the troops are in a combat zone. And therefore does not affect the award of decorations for combat.

Etienne,

Thank you for that explaination. My dad's MOS was S2 Recon Scout. He served in an Infantry Regiment and was also eligable for the CIB which I am looking at in it's shadow box as I write this email.

Jim

Lt. Nixon had three combat stars on his jump wings and you question his qualifications as parachute infantry ?

I digress...

As a relatively new WWII buff, I am trying to follow all this terminology, and feeling horribly ignorant! I think I've got it except for "MOS." It really looks like something I should know! Help, please?

MOS = Military Occupational Specialty (I think. It's been a while). Think of it as "What you do/did". In the modern Army an Infantryman has an MOS of '11B- Infantryman'.

Matt

A supply clerk, engineer, medic, doctor, and even a cook in an airborne division could make a combat jump and get a star on their jump wings. That dosen't mean they get a combat infantry badge.

I guess this stems from the fact that my dad was an MP in Vietnam. However; he was assigned to the 1st Air Cav most of the war, and usually they fought as infantry in the war. They were told they would get a CIB for actions at HUE, but the paper work never materialized, possibly because they were "not infantry".

Here is the current Army Enlisted Job Descriptions & Qualifications list:

http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinf...bs/blarjobs.htm

Concerning the award of the CIB. The following is a website to review AR 600-8-2 that defines the awarding of this badge. The paragraph is 8-6 and provides the history of the CIB and the criteria for the award. However, like all regulations there are exceptions to policy. One of the criteria, is that the CIB will not be awarded to a General Officer however, General "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell was awarded the CIB right before his death from liver cancer. Stillwell was the Commander of US forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. He normally led from the front wearing a big brimmed campaign hat, cartridge belt, a bolt action Springfield rifle on his shoulder and a corn-cob pipe. Stillwell was very acerbic in his comments and a prickly personality but he was a great leader and trainer especially of the Chinese Forces under Chiang Kai-shek who he derisively called "Peanut Head" in his reports to Washington. Chaing and his American born/educated wife were the leaders of the Chinese government and our "allies" fighting the Japanese. Stillwell was finally relieved toward the end of the war in the Pacific and sent home because of his intemporate comments.
Barbara Tuchman wrote an excellent bio on Stillwell several years ago ("Stillwell and the Asiatic Experience (sic)". ICYWI

http://docs.usapa.belvoir.army.mil/jw2/xml..._8_22/cover.asp

Nix certainly qualified under the "personally present and under fire" criterion that applied during WWII.

I understand that the only question is whether he was an infantry officer. As I mentioned earlier, I think that he was.

Yeah, I said that since he was branched as an infantry officer, and was assigned as the intel officer, he probably was eligable. I just thought maybe his branch was as an intel officer.

Sr Wing Commander,


In WWII it often happened that Platooncommanders, like Nixon was in 1942, were promoted during the war to become a staff member in Battalion HQ. Therefore Nixon was promoted to lead the S-2 (Intelligence) Section. Later on he was promoted to S-2 (Regimental Intelligence Officer), but got busted back because he was often drunk.

I wonder what had happened if he hadn't been busted in October 1944. Maybe he had been appointed CO 1st Battalion 506 PIR instead of Major Clarence Hester, who replaced LT-Col. James LaPrade who was killed at Noville.

Frank

Right, I was just thinking more along todays system. A battalion or regimental S-2 is now NORMALLY staffed by an intellegence branch officer and not a line infantry officer. (note I said normally, I new a brigade S-2 major who was in fact an infantry officer.

I think that nixons efforts where without a boubt a key part to easy, even not having fired a weapon, winters admits he never fired his wepaon after the crossroads incident.

My 2 cents worth, Lewis Nixon WAS a qualified infantry officer. He was Winters' assistant platoon leader at Toccoa. Winters said that Nixon's downfall was that he was not good at doing any type of work himself, but that he was exceptional in the art of communication and he commanded respect. He was a thinker and his head worked (when he was sober), but when it came to actually doing the work, he delegated it to lesser officers and NCOs. Winters and understood this, which is why they got along, as did Strayer. Sink evidently did not, which is why Nixon got "busted" back to battalion. He was the same way in civilian life. He could delegate jobs at Nixon Nitration, but he did not do any actual job and basically just came in to pick up his pay check and see if he got any mail.

Larry, trying to piece this together: so the Major's friendship with Nix endured based on Nix's contributions during the war, even though the Major didn't respect Nix in his postwar career?

Nix did go down to Utah to secure the tanks for Brecourt, right?

Troubling. But thank you for the reporting.

Winters gave the impression that in civilian life, when Nixon invited him out for dinner or to visit at his home, he went grudgingly. He'd sit and visit and Nixon got drunk. He said "It's no fun watching someone else get drunk when you don't drink." And he'd just go off to bed. This happened often. Sometimes Nixon invited other friends along, all drinkers, and Winters was really isolated. Yeah, I guess basically it was their shared expereicnes in teh war that bonded them, but not much after the war. Still, that frienship endured and I think grew stronger AFTER Winters left Nixon Nitration and was not around the drinking all the time. But Nixon came by his affliction honestly. His father was a heavy drinker and womanizer, divorced from Nixon's mother and remarried to a woman Winters only referred to "the blonde."

Yeah, Strayer sent Nixon to get tank support at Utah. He brought back 4 Shermans.

Larry, again, thank you for the unvarnished Winters perspective. Not, ideally, what I'd want to hear.

But, in the real world, it makes a lot of sense, given what we know of Major Winters and of Nix. The late '40's and early '50s were a fascinating time, of re-acclimation and of sorting out. As the Colonel has written, the vets at Stanford in the late '40s gathered together with other vets from the same branch and the same area of service, entirely transcending any other differences. It sounds as if the same dynamic worked for Major Winters and Captain Nixon.

Again, thank you. Doug

Gentlemen- Thankyou all for this string of posts. I enjoy learning about these men, and the more I read from you, the more I learn!

Currahee!

Dave

A little addendum to one of the things Winters liked about Nixon. He was a great communicator. He had a way of relaying information and instructions to people that were easy to follow and easily understood. That's why he did well on staff. Nixon was NOT good at actually doing the work, but he could delegate and when he was giving insutrctions, he got his point across exceptionally well. It was teh same after the war at Nixon Nitration. He'd stop into the factory once or twice a week, check his mail, give a few instructions, and pick up his pay check, then he was gone. About the only time Winters saw him while working for Nixon was when he stopped by the plant, or when Nixon invited Wonters out to dinner or to his home. Of course, then Nix woud drink himself into a stupor and Winters would go home. That also did not cement their post war relationship, which got stronger again once Winters left Nixon Nitration.

Post script to the movie, Nixon did not offer Winters a job while they were still in the army. He invited Winters to visit him in New York (he was staying at the Yale Club) in Dec., 1945, that was when it took place. I guess the producers put it into Episode 10 just to neatly tie up loose ends on their post war lives.

By the way, after Winters came out of the army in 1953 after being called up during Korea, his job at Nixon Nitration (he started as personnel director and moved up to plant manager) had been filled. He got a 6-month severance package and got to keep the company car he had been using. That was OK, though. He had decided beforehand that he was not going back to Nixon Nitration.

Larry,

I enjoy your insights into Major Winters' life. I don't mean to be nosy, but the more I learn about the man, the more I wish I COULD know.

It seems to me he is someone many would want to emulate. His philosophies and the way he has lived his life would make a great biography. I know you are a writer and have a personal friendship with Major Winters, so..... any thought of doing a book on him?

Perhaps the major would not authorize it, but if you were interested, you might be able to persuade him. His life could be an inspiration to many.


Jack

It's been a long time since I've had access to my books and the DVD, so my memories are getting soft on me. Did Nixon ever dry out?

Matt

Yes, when he met and married Grace, his third and last wife, Nixon was able to get off the sauce and sort out his life. He spent the rest of it traveling the world with Grace, and he and Winters remained friends.

Jack, Larry has told us here that he IS working on a book with Major Winters. Which we are eagerly anticipating.

Now if someone could just persuade the Colonel to do his memoirs . . .

And get someone to publish Brian's story...

Thanks for the info, appell. I'll be waiting impatiently as well.

jm

Does anyone know if Sobel earned a CIB? I have read that he earned a Purple Heart but no information on how he got one.

Thanks

That seems odd to me. I'm no expert, but were'nt air cav and paratroopers both types of airborne infantry? and wasn't the 101st an air cav division in Vietnam?

I know I'm getting in at the end of the string about Capt. Nixon's CIB, but was he assigned as S2 before he jumped into Normandy?

========================

MacDougal,

The Branches of the Army are classified as basic and special branches, which are further divided into arms and Services based on the normal functions and roles performed by the soldiers assigned to them. Certain branches are both an arm and a Service. Combined arms are those branches whose members are primarily concerned with combat and combat support. Services are those branches whose members are concerned with providing combat service support to the Army. Certain branches are both an arm and service.

The arms are Infantry, Corps of Engineers, Air Defense Artillery, Field Artillery, Armor, Signal Corps, Military Police Corps, Aviation, Chemical Corps, Special Forces, and Military Intelligence.

INFANTRY closes with the enemy of fire and maneuver in order to destroy or capture him or repel his assault by fire, close combat, and counter attack. The Infantry forms the nucleus of the Army's fighting strength.


Nixon's Basic Branch was Infantry and his assignement was Infantry: 506th Parachute Infantry Regiement,
101st Airborne Infantry Division.

Y.o.s.,

LongJohn