“By the time we jumped into Holland, I was so lonely that I needed someone in whom I could confide my inner thoughts. That someone was Nix. Whenever the bullets began to fly, I could turn and there stood Nix. He always walked on my left side.”
“In hindsight, Nix probably needed me as much as I needed him.”
“As different in temperament as Nixon and I were, he was the one man to whom I could talk. He provided an outlet that allowed me to unburden myself as a combat leader. “Nix” and I completely understood each other.”
“Nixon was always there for me. He kept me from second-guessing myself.”
“From a personal standpoint, I would have been devastated had Nixon been killed. As a leader you do not stop and calculate your losses during combat. You cannot stop a fight and ask yourself how many casualties you have sustained. You calculate losses only when the fight is over. In that regard Nixon seemed a special case.”
“As I think back and I put it together and compared our two lives, how different we were, yet how similar we were in many ways.”
“On reflection, Nixon always seemed to be around.”
“Nixon was undoubtedly my best friend. Our friendship evolved naturally. My first recollection of the impact I had on Nixon occurred on the troop carrier taking us back to England after Normandy. Nixon asked me to talk to the battalion officers on leadership. What could I say? That impressed me.”
“He always trusted me, from the time we met at Officer Candidate School. While we were in training before we shipped overseas, Nixon hid his entire inventory of Vat 69 in my footlocker, under the tray holding my socks, underwear, and sweaters. What greater trust, what greater honor could I ask for than to be trusted with his precious inventory of Vat 69?”
“Nixon departed Joigny the next week, making me about as lonesome as a lovesick sailor who married a Wave on an eight-hour pass.”
Richard Winters on his friendship with Lewis Nixon