Easy Company parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day. Most of the command was killed when one of the planes was shot down, and Winters was left in charge of the company. In the first day of action, he led 13 men on an assault that destroyed a battery of German howitzers that were shelling the roads leading off Utah Beach. Winters and his men took out the position and also discovered a map that laid out the German defensive positions. The attack was such a textbook maneuver, it is still taught at West Point.

For his efforts, Winters was honored with the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest honor awarded by the U.S. military.

Winters once told his co-author of "Beyond Band of Brothers" that "war does not make men great, but sometimes, war brings out the greatness in men."

What stays with you is not his actions with his rifle, but the way he led men in battle.

Each of the 10 episodes of the mini-series was book-ended by an interview with the aging surviving members of Easy Company who would quietly, often fighting back tears, remember the things they had seen and the men they fought with. One of those men interviewed was the real Dick Winters.

Those interviews hit home. You could see the anguish in each of them, and it made their sacrifice raw and all the more touching.