David Kenyon Webster: Difference between revisions

 

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Webster was married to the former Barbara Stoessel, with whom he had three children.<ref name=”lat” />

Webster was married to the former Barbara Stoessel, with whom he had three children.<ref name=”lat” />

On the morning of September 9, 1961, Webster embarked on a fishing trip off [[Santa Monica, California]], in a {{convert|12|ft|spell=in|adj=on}} sailboat. When he failed to return that afternoon, the [[United States Coast Guard]] began a search for him. Early the following day, commercial fishermen recovered his boat {{convert|5|nmi|spell=in}} offshore with one oar and a tiller missing. Barbara told authorities that Webster often went shark fishing in the small craft but did not wear a [[life preserver]].<ref name=”lat” />

On the morning of September 9, 1961, Webster embarked on a fishing trip off [[Santa Monica, California]], in a {{convert|12|ft|spell=in|adj=on}} sailboat. When he failed to return that afternoon, the [[United States Coast Guard]] began a search for him. Early the following day, commercial fishermen recovered his boat {{convert|5|nmi|spell=in}} offshore with one oar and a tiller missing. Barbara told authorities that Webster often went shark fishing in the small craft but did not wear a [[life preserver]].<ref name=”lat” />

The Taft School established an award for excellence in writing in Webster’s honor.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.taftschool.org/giving/endowed-funds |title=Endowed Funds/Enrichment |website=[[The Taft School]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309194539/https://www.taftschool.org/giving/endowed-funds |archive-date=2017-03-09 |access-date=2017-05-14 |quote=David Kenyon Webster Prize…For excellence in writing.}}</ref>

The Taft School established an award for excellence in writing in Webster’s honor.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.taftschool.org/giving/endowed-funds |title=Endowed Funds/Enrichment |website=[[The Taft School]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170309194539/https://www.taftschool.org/giving/endowed-funds |archive-date=2017-03-09 |access-date=2017-05-14 |quote=David Kenyon Webster Prize…For excellence in writing.}}</ref>

American soldier/journalist (1922–1961)

David Kenyon Webster (June 2, 1922 – September 9, 1961)^[1] was an American author and journalist. After serving as soldier in the famed Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II, Webster worked as a newspaper writer after the war. His war memoir, Parachute Infantry, was published posthumously, and he was portrayed by Eion Bailey in the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

Webster was born in New York City. He attended the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, before enrolling at Harvard University as an English major in 1940.^[1]

In 1943, Webster volunteered the for the U.S. Army paratroopers, joining the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. He trained with Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, and on D-Day, parachuted into Normandy as part of the 2nd Battalion’s headquarters company. He landed in the wet fields behind Utah Beach before being wounded by shrapnel from a German mortar shell.^[4] Bored with the lack of action in headquarters company, Webster transferred to Easy Company after Normandy.

In October 1944, Webster parachuted into the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden. After the operation failed to achieve its objective of seizing the bridges over the Rhine, the company shifted toward Arnhem. During the October 5 attack in the no-man’s land called “the Island,” Webster was wounded in the leg by machine gun fire, the bullet passing cleanly through the flesh of his calf. Webster blurted out “they got me!” after being hit, something he was immediately embarrassed by, later writing that he’d seen “too many movies.”

After a long stint in the hospital, Webster rejoined Easy Company in January 1945 in Haguenau, France.^[8] He found his regiment decimated by combat in the Battle of the Bulge, and shocked by the loss of his friends in Easy Company. Later, after entering Germany, Easy Company discovered the Kaufering concentration camp complex.

After the war, Webster worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News, and in addition to working in public relations for companies such as North American Aviation. He also took up sailing and marine biology as hobbies.^[1] His interest in sharks led him to write the non-fiction book Myth and Maneater: The Story of the Shark, which was published posthumously in 1962.^[1] At the time of his death, Webster was working as a technical writer for System Development Corporation.^[11]

Webster was married to the former Barbara Stoessel, with whom he had three children.^[11]

On the morning of September 9, 1961, Webster embarked on a fishing trip off Santa Monica, California, in a twelve-foot (3.7 m) sailboat. When he failed to return that afternoon, the United States Coast Guard began a search for him. Early the following day, commercial fishermen recovered his boat five nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) offshore with one oar and a tiller missing. Barbara told authorities that Webster often went shark fishing in the small craft but did not wear a life preserver.^[11]

The Taft School established an award for excellence in writing in Webster’s honor.^[12]

Historian Stephen Ambrose drew heavily from Webster’s unpublished memoirs while writing his 1992 book Band of Brothers. Through Ambrose’s influence, the memoirs were publish by the Louisiana State University Press in 1994 as Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper’s Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich. It received critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “gutsy, sometimes bemused and sometimes angry,” and Booklist saying that “Webster achieves a perfectly pitched, Sad Sack sarcasm that is an authentic witness to the combat experience.^[13]

In Band of Brothers, Webster is portrayed as an educated yet grounded and reliable soldier, though one unconcerned with military glory or advancement:

He had long ago made it a rule of his Army life never to do anything voluntarily. He was an intellectual, as much an observer and chronicler of the phenomenon of soldiering as a practitioner. He was almost the only original Toccoa] man who never became an NCO. Various officers wanted to make him a squad leader, but he refused. He was there to do his duty, and he did it—he never let a buddy down in combat, in France, Holland, or Germany—but he never volunteered for anything and he spurned promotion.

In the 2001 HBO miniseries, Webster was portrayed by actor Eion Bailey.^[15]