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Started By
Message
BoB? Was Lt Sobel good at training?
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:29 pm
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:29 pm
Yes Sobel was a total jackass but sometimes that’s what you need in trainers. He could push them with no empathy getting the most.
No doubt his leadership in the field would have gotten them all killed but I’m not sure he was the worst thing for Easy during training.
No doubt his leadership in the field would have gotten them all killed but I’m not sure he was the worst thing for Easy during training.
11
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:31 pm to Nodust
He excelled at training but lacked in field craft.
Also, being a by the book disciplinarian and careerist medal-seeker was going to get him fragged by a subordinate eventually.
Also, being a by the book disciplinarian and careerist medal-seeker was going to get him fragged by a subordinate eventually.
This post was edited on 3/6/21 at 12:36 pm
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:45 pm to Nodust
He was a good trainer. But a terrible field commander.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:47 pm to UndercoverBryologist
quote:
was going to get him fragged by a subordinate eventually.
He would have never made it ten minutes first battle.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:48 pm to Nodust
quote:
For an unknown reason, in the late 1960s, Sobel tried to commit suicide by shooting himself through his temple, but the shot only severed his optic nerves, blinding him for life. He was later moved to a VA assisted-living home, and resided there for 17 years, before dying of malnutrition and neglect in 1987. No funeral was held.
Good lord that is a shitty way to go.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 12:54 pm to kciDAtaE
That’s pretty sad.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:00 pm to Nodust
I’d say without Sobel, Easy Company is far less prepared.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:08 pm to Nodust
Read the book. He was a piece of shite who couldn't complete the training he was giving the men. He always stopped after 20 of the 30 pushups the men were doing, and there was a question as to whether he could pass the physical for active duty. Most men would at least live to respect someone who tested them to the limit, but the total dickhead weasel package that Sobel was led former E company guys to hate him until their death.
He lived alone and two people went to his funeral, the rabbi and his sister.
He lived alone and two people went to his funeral, the rabbi and his sister.
This post was edited on 3/6/21 at 7:40 pm
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:10 pm to kciDAtaE
quote:According to Bill Guardere, from when he looked for Sobel for a reunion, there was a service of sorts, with his sister and a rabbi.
No funeral was held.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:12 pm to Nodust
Sobel wasn't even really that good at training. He seemed to do everything for spite and career advancement. He also had no love or respect for his men. We'll never know exactly what was going through his head as he was never interviewed, having died years before Ambrose began doing his research on Easy Company, but I think it can (at best) be said that he accidentally made the men of Easy Company a finely tuned machine of war. The man was just a miserable human being that got his kicks watching other men suffer and be miserable.
This post was edited on 3/6/21 at 1:14 pm
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:22 pm to RollTide1987
He was excellent at making everyone hate him so much they wanted to make him look bad. Which luckily for us turned Easy Company into the legendary unit they became in WW2.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:28 pm to blueboy
quote:
there was a question as to whether he could pass the physical for active duty.
He never married, lived alone and two people went to his funeral, the rabbi and his sister.
umm...
quote:
He trained his men intensely, and was eventually promoted to the rank of captain in recognition of his ability as a trainer.
Sobel jumped into Normandy and earned a Combat Infantryman Badge as part of Regimental Headquarters Company.
Sobel was assigned as the regimental S-4 (logistics) officer on 8 March 1945.
quote:
In interviews, some Easy Company veterans have acknowledged the part Sobel's training played in the company's later successes.
quote:
Sobel returned to the United States in 1945, and was honorably discharged from the Army on 18 March 1946. He worked as an accountant before being recalled to active duty during the Korean War.
quote:
He later married and had three children.
LINK
Just b/c he acted like a dickhead when he was training his men doesn't mean he was worthless the way you are portraying him.
This post was edited on 3/6/21 at 1:29 pm
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:28 pm to Nodust
Winters to Sobel: “We salute the rank, not the man.”
Me:
Me:
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:46 pm to blueboy
quote:
He was a piece of shite who couldn't complete the training he was giving the men. He always stopped after 20 of the 30 pushups the men were doing, and there was a question as to whether he could pass the physical for active duty.
I didn't realize that Company Commanders had to go through the physical training along with their men. I assumed that they went through boot camp and OCS and were required to stay physically fit, but not that they had to repeat training with every new command. I assumed if anyone had to keep up with the new men, it was the sergeants.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 1:55 pm to blueboy
quote:
He never married, lived alone
quote:
blueboy
Posted on 3/6/21 at 2:00 pm to Fewer Kilometers
There was a story about the men betting each other that he couldn't do the 30 pushups required for active duty, because he always stopped at 20 during his training sessions, while the men continued on to 30. Sobel's own physical test was attended by several of the men who were hoping/rooting for Sobel to fail. He didn't but he didn't easily pass either.
Wow.
quote:Sorry I forgot that, but I read that there was basically no one at his funeral service. That seems pretty telling. Also:
He later married and had three children.
quote:
On the next field exercise, E Company was told that a number of its men would be designated as simulated casualties so the medics could practice bandaging wounds, improvising casts and splints, evacuating men on litters and so forth. Sobel was told that he was a simulated casualty. The medics put him under a real anesthetic, pulled down his pants, and made a real incision simulating an appendectomy. They sewed up the incision and bound it up with bandages and surgical tape, then disappeared.
Sobel was furious, naturally enough, but he got nowhere in pressing for an investigation. Not a man in E Company could be found who could identify the guilty medics.
Wow.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 2:12 pm to Nodust
(no message)
This post was edited on 11/6/23 at 8:12 pm
Posted on 3/6/21 at 2:27 pm to GetCocky11
quote:Okay, he did get married, but lived the last couple of decades alone and died of neglect at a state home.
He never married, lived alone
Okay, now I feel bad.
He did graduate from Culver Military Academy, my brother's school. One of my bro's classmates in C company there was the current owner of the New York Yankees, so I doubt Sobel had a deprived childhood.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 2:35 pm to RollTide1987
If easy company is to be regarded as this awesome fighting force, that shite didn’t happen by pure chance. And I really don’t care what the men ultimately though about him.
If he trained those guys to be what they ended up being then Sobel deserves credit. A lot of credit.
If he trained those guys to be what they ended up being then Sobel deserves credit. A lot of credit.
Posted on 3/6/21 at 2:52 pm to Dr RC
quote:
Just b/c he acted like a dickhead when he was training his men doesn't mean he was worthless the way you are portraying him.
Yeah, not to hijack the thread, but I think the story about Dyke may be a bit more nuanced than portrayed in the series. The guy may not have been the total loser that was portrayed.
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