| David Kenyon Webster | |
| Nickname: | Dave, Web, Einstein, Professor, Keen |
| Birth Date: | 2 June 1922 |
| Birth Place: | New York, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Placeofburial: | Lost at sea |
| Allegiance: | United States |
| Branch: | United States Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1942–1945 |
| Rank: | Private First Class |
| Unit: | E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division |
| Battles: | World War II |
| Awards: | Bronze Star Medal Purple Heart (2) |
| Laterwork: | Journalist, author |
David Kenyon Webster (2 June 1922 – disappeared 9 September 1961, presumed dead)[1] was an American soldier, journalist, and author. During World War II he was a private with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division. Webster was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Eion Bailey.[2]
Webster was born in New York City of English and Scottish descent. He was educated at The Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut, then enrolled as an English literature major at Harvard University. In 1942, he volunteered for the paratroopers before finishing his degree.[1] He used his middle name, Kenyon, while addressing his family in his letters to home rather than his first name, David.[3]
Webster trained with Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion at Camp Toccoa. He parachuted into France on D-Day with Headquarters Company of the 2nd Battalion, then requested a transfer to Easy Company, with which he served until his discharge in 1945.
On D-Day, Webster landed nearly alone and off-course in flooded fields behind Utah Beach, and was wounded a few days later. A few months later, he parachuted into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden. After Market Garden failed, the company shifted toward Arnhem. During an attack in the no-man's land called "the Island" (also referred to as "The Crossroads"), he was wounded in the leg by machine gun fire. He was evacuated to a hospital and spent the next several months recuperating in England.
Released by the hospital in February 1945, Webster rejoined his unit.[4] [5] What he found was a regiment decimated by combat in the Battle of the Bulge, exhausted, weary, and bitter over his absence and the loss of friends. Soon thereafter, Easy Company discovered their first concentration camp, the Kaufering concentration camp complex.
Author Stephen Ambrose wrote of Webster:
Webster's list of authorized medals and decorations are:
Webster was the last of the surviving Camp Toccoa veterans who had fought in Normandy to be sent home after the surrender of Nazi Germany. When he was discharged in 1945, he returned to work as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. Webster took up sailing and fishing and made a hobby of studying oceanography and marine biology.[5] During those years he worked on his wartime memoirs and occasionally approached magazines with article proposals related to his war service, but he never attempted to publish a full treatment of his experiences in the 101st Airborne Division.
In 1952, Webster married the former Barbara Jean Stoessell,[6] and had three children.[1]
Webster's interest in sharks led him to write a book on the subject entitled Myth and Maneater: The Story of the Shark.[5] [7] [8]
On 9 September 1961, Webster embarked on a fishing trip in a 12feet sailboat, leaving in the morning and planning to come back in the afternoon. When he failed to return, the Coast Guard embarked on a search. Early the following day, commercial fishermen recovered his boat 5nmi offshore. One oar and a tiller were missing. His wife told the press that Webster would go shark-fishing in the small craft but did not use a life preserver. At the time of his death, he was employed as a technical writer with System Development Corp.[9]
Except for a few short stories in magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Webster's wartime diary and thoughts remained unpublished at the time of his death. However, Stephen Ambrose, a professor of history at the University of New Orleans, who had studied Webster's writings, was so impressed by the historical value of Webster's unpublished papers that the professor encouraged Webster's widow to submit the writing package to LSU Press. She did so, and a book was published, with Ambrose's foreword, by LSU in 1994. Entitled Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich, it presented Webster's first-hand account of life as an Airborne infantryman. His trained eye, honesty, and writing skills helped give the book, as well as the miniseries, a color and tone not available in other G.I. diaries. An excerpt illustrates his style:
The Taft School established an award for excellence in writing in Webster's honor.[10]