The Beginning:

Easy Company was established in the summer of 1942. Its members were men from all over the America. Some were from the countryside and others came from the big cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia. All these men were quite different, but they had one thing in common; they all wanted to fight with the best.

The Airborne was a new concept in the American Army, and no one forced you to become a paratrooper. You had to volunteer for it. And many did after an article about the airborne that was printed in 1942. One thing that of course helped some of the men to decide, was the 50$ bonus pay. One of the men who volunteered was Joe Toye. He was first assigned to guard public buildings, but wanted to do something more important and exciting, and decided to join the paratroopers.

Easy company had it's first base at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Here, they had basic training, which mostly ment physical training and learning how to handle a weapon. A part of their physical training was to run up a mountain called "Currahee". It was about 5km to run each way, and Easy's first CO Lt. Herbert M. Sobel pushed his men to the maximum. He wanted Easy to become the finest and first company in the entire 506th (506thPIR was not yet attached to 101st Airborne).

   
The only problem with 1st Lt Sobel, was that he didn't have the respect of the men. There are many reasons why, but the main reason was Sobel's way of leading. His way of leading was based on fear, he demanded tight discipline, and punished the men for everything they did. When he inspected the men, he revoked their weekend passes for every little infraction. If he couldn't find a infraction, he made one up. This was his way of leading, and it gave results. Easy Company scored best in physical training, but Sobel did not have the respect of the men. One who did have the respect of the men, was 2nd Lieutenant Richard Davies Winters (also called Dick").

As the time went by, many of the men began to hate Sobel (who was promoted to Captain by Col. Sink. Winters was promoted to 1st Lieutenant). One day Sobel had injured his foot during training, he decided to search their footlockers while the men were out on a fieldtrip. He looked through all of their personal belongings, took what he called "unregulated clothing" and read their personal letters. Why he did it, they still don't know.
"Mount Currahee"
In December 1942, the 506th was moved to Camp Benning. Here they learned how to be an airborne soldier. The training was divided into four parts (A-D)
A- Physical training
B- Basic technical training
C- How to pack and use a parachute
D- To jump from a C-47 airplane.

At least this was the plan. When they started on part A, but the soldiers of the 506th were in such a good shape that they skipped it. They were simply enough in better shape than the men put at Camp Benning to train them.
After learning how to pack the chute, how to jump and how to land, they were in late December ready to make their first of five jumps out of a C-47 Airplane. All except two easy men jumped at the first try. One of them was Private Joe Ramirez. But when the plane flew over the second time, he told the jumpmaster he wanted to jump, and so he did.

A- Physical training B- Basic technical training
C- How to pack and use a parachute D- To jump from a C-47 airplane.
After five jumps from the C-47's, they were qualified paratroopers. They got their jump wings, and finally got to blouse their pants (to have their pants into their boots. Only paratroopers got to blouse their pants. Regular infantrymen had to use straight leg).

After the time at Camp Benning, they were moved to a camp called Camp Mackall. The was a totally new camp, with modern facilities, hot showers, five cinemas, good food, nice beds and it was a big and modern airfield. It's name was after Private John T. Mackall, who was the first American Airborne soldier to loose his life in combat. He died in North-Africa, fighting with the 82. Airborne.

It was here at Camp Mackall Herbert Sobel had his inspections of the men's footlockers. Everything he took, he wrote down on a list, but what he did with it later, no one knows. They got some of it back, but most of it, they never saw again.
Earlier the objective of the men had to be qualified as paratroopers, now they achieved that. After this, their new objective was to survive Sobel.

Captain Herbert M. Sobel Lt. Richard D. Winters (Later promoted to Captain and Major)
One day Col. Strayer received orders from Washington that the 506th had to run a physical test. Everybody had to run, officers, cooks and Privates included. 97% of the battalion passed the test, which was if not the best, one of the best of the US army. This made Col. Jablonski (in Washington) to think that Col Strayer had fixed the result, and made the 506th run it a second time. Winters later said " They made us run that test a second time. Cooks, service personnel, officers, everybody! And we scored 98%!".

After Camp Mackall, they were on the move again, this time to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It didn't take long before they understood that this was a preparations camp before they were to be shipped out. Everybody got new uniforms and new weapons, and were told "to get to know" their new weapons.

 
Later, after a short time at Fort Bragg, they went of to Camp Shanks, New York. Here they were told to remove all signs of being paratroopers, which meant not blousing their pants, to remove their airborne badges and everything else that would make them look like a paratrooper. This was to prevent enemy spies knowing that the Airborne was on their way.

In September 1943, they boarded the ship "Samaria", a ship that used to have a capacity of 1000 men. Now, it was re-build to take about 5000.

This ment that the 12 days long trip to Liverpool, England, not was going to be a nice one.

When they arrived in Liverpool, the trip continued with trucks and train. They were heading for Aldbourne, a town that were to be their home for many months to come.
The soldiers wave farewell to the Statue of Liberty

Before they went, Captain Sobel sent this letter to their families:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Soon your son will drop from the sky to engage and defeat the enemy.
Your letters of love and encouragement will arm him with a fighting heart.
With that, he cannot fail but to win glory for himself, make you proud him,
and his country grateful for his service in its hour of needs.

Signed Herbert M. Sobel, Captain, Commanding.

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