Maj. Oliver Massee Horton
Commanding Officer, 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Decorations
- Silver Star (posthumous) for Opheusden, October 5, 1944 On record
- Purple Heart (posthumous) On record
- European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign, arrowhead and 2 battle stars: Normandy and Rhineland (Holland) Standard
- American Campaign and World War II Victory Standard
- Combat Infantryman Badge and Parachutist Badge, with the bronze star troopers pinned on for each combat jump: Normandy and Holland Standard
On record: named in his burial and award records. Standard: what a 506th officer who jumped at Normandy and Holland would have earned. Badge art: U.S. Army, public domain.
Service record
- Before the war
Raleigh boy. Studied engineering at North Carolina State College.
- 1942 · Camp Toccoa, Georgia
The 506th forms at Toccoa and runs Currahee Mountain, up and back. He serves as a battalion executive officer in training, then takes command of the 3rd Battalion.
- June 6, 1944 · Normandy
Jumps into France on D-Day. The regiment lands scattered, then fights through Carentan. Promised three days of combat, they stay 33.
- September 17, 1944 · Holland
Second combat jump, Operation Market Garden. On September 18 he walks into Eindhoven with the regiment.
- October 5, 1944 · Opheusden
With his battalion under heavy attack, he goes forward under mortar and machine-gun fire to place the guns himself and call in artillery, since no forward observer is there. Moving out past the line to site an anti-tank gun, he is mortally wounded near the railroad by the Linge canal. His Silver Star citation credits him with keeping the enemy from flanking his battalion.
At rest
Why the bar's Major carries his name
Maj. Oliver M. Horton
Battalion XO at Toccoa, battalion commander at Normandy and Holland, gone at 32.
Band of Brothers fans know him from a night exercise: Pvt. George Luz does the Major's voice in the dark, and Capt. Sobel, sure he's taking orders from Horton, cuts a farmer's fence and lets the cattle loose. That one really happened.
Maj. Horton, proprietor
Our Discord bot: a retired Battalion XO who owns the Forward Operating Bar, runs the muster calls and keeps the tab.
We gave him the real Major's name and his old XO job, and a soft spot for anyone who can do a good voice. The real one never got to retire. This one pours the first round for him.