WheresDyke

Favorite episode of the series

A lot has been made about Dike being a decorated combat soldier before he took command of Easy Company, and the fact that he might have been shot (he probably was) during the attack on Foy. Well, as they say on Bablyon 5, "Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth." It's entirely possible for Dike to be an excellent soldier but a terrible leader. I mean, there's a reason why not every great baseball player goes on to become a great manager, correct?

This part always confused me because Dike was awarded several medals during the war for going into direct fire to bring wounded troops out of harms way, and got several accommodations across the war, it just doesn’t seem like he was given fair light in the series

Dike has 2 bronze stars and a purple heart. Kinda an unfair portrayal

Remember boys, when things get hard in battle, your leader can always get away, just for....getting help! Why didn't he go to court martial?

Based on his service record, probably not accurate. More likely the guy was worn down. Ever listen to someone depressed try organize something? Comes off like Dike. Maybe he was already suffering PTSD.

lieutenant Norman Dike. Full name Lieutenant Normandy Dichael

This guy is the type that gets shot by the "enemy" and nobody asks about it after...

Lipton was a hell of a man too

I worked with a lead I started calling him "Foxhole Norman" because he was useless, terrible crew lead, indecisive, always afraid of doing something wrong so he frequently ended up doing nothing. I don't know if he ever caught on but I sure had fun explaining it to people who asked me why I called him that. Fucking clown.

Keep in mind, a lot of these officers were only in their mid-20s. What is exceptional is that Winters at this age was able to demonstrate the mental fortitude and maturity to be an effective combat leader. Dike did not have those skills to be an effective combat leader, but that doesn't mean he was a coward. Dike was awarded for bravery with two bronze stars for dragging wounded men to safety and he sustained a gunshot wound himself. He may have been a shit leader at the time, but he's still a good man and soldier who did his part in the war. We shouldn't judge too harshly.

Just because a person is a bad military leader doesn't make them a bad person. I hope Dike found something later on in life he was good at. That's assuming this scene is accurate.

Some people can't handle war...The bad thing is not being able to handle not being at war. I'm not a Speirs, never felt safer then when I was getting shot at

Dike reminds me of my senior management director when I was still working in sales. Whenever he was needed he would pass most if not all his obligations to us Junior management. The decision making, planning and even the logistics to us. Whenever a important meeting came up, he'd show up and let us do what ever was needed then disappear to god knows where.

What if captain sobel lead the easy company when the assault initiate?

i’m amazed you can just wonder off tbh.

"What type of formation you want?"
"Uh...as present as per usual."
The hell kind of answer is that? Sure, Buck may know what that means, but it's still a pretty shit answer to a fairly simple and important question...

Just like almost ever "project/ops manager" Ive ever had too. Just so bad.

Never judge a man harshly for turning up to the field of battle with the intent to fight, no matter what state they enter it in. Dyke may not have been fit to lead but at the end of the day very few are, especially when you could die at any moment

Temperature minus 21. Still to today it’s never been that cold again. US lost 80,000 soldiers during battle of the bulge. Most killed in any one battle for Americans. Two records that shows the difference between an American soldier and every other country.
Though my father told me during ww2 when fighting the Japanese that the best soldiers were Australians

Unfortunately 'brass' didn't and doesn't always have a Winters at their disposal.

you get other picture in the serie then in reality,

Every manager ever.

Dike wasn't bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions. Probably best way to describe incompetent. No matter how you tried to sugarcoat Dike the fact is when you're in the open in the field and the whole German artillery rained down on you, you would hoped your CO made some decisions even bad ones. But he made none and that got a lot of men killed. That's the worst part about Dike. He made no decisions. He always tried to play safe.

This show did lieutenant dyke dirty. He had prior combat experience and was wounded during the battle of foy. He didn't freeze up or incompetent.
Blithe was someone else done dirty, he didn't die after being shot through the neck and went on to live a long life. The show portrayed him as a coward but he was anything but that.
When I learned of these things it made me hate this show and book for daring to say it's the truth when some of it is exaggerated for drama

'Spiers'!!!

inpaindaily

The chunky gliding immunohistochemically yawn because freezer opportunely apologise minus a thoughtful ladybug. miniature, nippy output

G-D BLESS EASY COMPANY AND FAMILIES , FRIENDS and those who always Respected and Remembered them ,
SUPER AWESOME MILLENNIUM LEVEL SHALOM ❤️❤️❤️❤️😀😀😀😀😀😀🌹🌹🌹😄😄🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹😄🌹🌹✡️✡️🌹🌹🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍😀✡️✡️✡️✡️✡️🙏🕎😄😄🌹🌹🙏✡️👍❤️❤️😀

Judge not

Narcolepsy ?

I wonder why they choose Dyke and Blythe to fabricate. There was plenty of people around to tell the truth.

Another thing to consider is war changes people. Look as Lt. Compton they kept on saying he changed or he was going nuts after getting wounded. Then a shell of his former self when his closest friends died.

Maybe this also happened to dike. He was a good leader or a resilent man but has been broken in by war.

Another example is Malarkey, he had high spirits into the war then spiraled into a hard person. War changes or breaks people differently.


Winters is a good leader. But what if he sees nixon dying in his hands or someone close to him. It would leave a mark or dent in his resilience.

"So I will probably be called away... Regularly " 🤣 - " Present as per usual but I'll clarify that with you at a later time.. Liutenant"😂

Nobody from Easy Company seemed to redeem Dike or vouch for him. They were all combat veterans....that should say something about his worthiness of command.

We went through this in Nam. “Incompoops” rotating through. Punching their tickets with our blood.

I feel like dike is good for most of this movie up till this point.

Dike was awarded two bronze stars.
He didn’t “freeze” he was shot in the shoulder and hip. He went into shock, lost so much blood but only survived because the cold slowed down his bleeding.

Just wondering if my boss is related to dyke

From what I see Dike's relief was quite justified. Very poor and lazy leader. And yes, I have commanded troops.

Lipton was the real leader in that platoon for bastone

funny how all those people jumping out of nowhere with "he was awarded two bronze stars" and "he was shot and didn't froze up"
yeah ok... and?
doesn't change the fact that foxhole norman was a terrible leader
just like people go with "sobel was a bad leader because he pushed them hard" no he was a bad leader because we would get them killed unnecessarily to quote it from the show "he get's jumpy on the field - yeah he get's jumpy and gets you killed"

Comes back with KFC

Dike would continue to serve even into Korean War, I think, and with distinctions. Honestly he reminds me of lots of stupid decisions I made in younger years that still cause me to cringe. But a good man doesn't usually come naturally, but instead the hard and ugly way.

There is no excuse for what he did other than "He was shocked." and "He was incompetent at the time." but do remember that it takes a lot to become a competent man, while it takes next to nothing to be the total opposite.

It's hard to know what the truth about Norman Dike was. BoB is told (mostly) through the perspective of the enlisted men and platoon leaders from Currahee. It's very hard to fill the shoes of a popular commander when they leave and its impossible to impress everyone.

However, I've seen at least two personality types that will make a commander unpopular really quick.

The worst is the micromanager, they know "the right way" to do everything and start giving orders to everyone at all levels without using the chain of command and the unit becomes totally dysfunctional because no one knows what's going on.

The other, which isn't quite as bad, is the empty suit/uniform. They don't care what's going on so long as no one makes them look bad. They keep their distance from their people, which usually comes off as being cold. They won't do as much damage as a micromanager, but don't count on them for help or a warm and fuzzy conversation.

I think Dike was the second type. I don't think he was a coward or totally inept, but he wasn't invested in Easy Company like Winters was or a born warrior like Spears was. It was a job and he did it knowing it was temporary, keeping his distance from everyone and not making big decisions that could have hurt his career. The problem was, Dike's lack of initiative lost the confidence of the men and his immediate leadership.

Alright, I gotta return some video tapes.

Eisenhower and Marshall replaced generals every 90 days if they weren't getting the job done. Doesn't mean they were sent home. They simply were relieved for awhile and sent into other commands later. That system worked well.
In rifle companies and battalions the same dynamic was at work.
Remember, Sink promoted Winters to 2nd Battalion XO after Maj. Ollie Horton was killed.
That opened up Easy Co command.
Moose Heyliger was around for about a cup of coffee, but looks like the new Easy Co commander selection was taken out of Winters's hand and likely Sink's as well.
Division-level is out of touch with line companies, so, yeah, sending Dike was ill-considered.
A lot of responsibility fell on the battalion commanders, who had to run several companies. I think Winters could have easily fired Dike if he had wanted.
It took Dike's mishandling of the Foy assault to get rid of him and replace him with Speirs, which was brilliant, on-the-spot decision-making by Winters.
I wonder who led Dog Co after that.
It's been said the war in Europe was a battalion commander's war.
And Sink had confidence in Winters.

This is like my superior at my job can’t seem to ever find him

I love Wahlberg's voice narrating the story.