Walter Gordon (veteran)

Corporal Walter Scott Gordon, Jr. (15 April 1920 – 19 April 1997) was a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II.

Gordon was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Ben Caplan. His life story was featured in the 2010 book A Company of Heroes: Personal Memories about the Real Band of Brothers and the Legacy They Left Us.

Youth

Walter Scott "Smokey" Gordon was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He enrolled at Millsaps College around 1940, attending there for 2 years.

Due to colorblindness and flat feet, the Marines and the Navy had rejected him, so he joined the Army. Gordon enlisted on 10 August 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as his father told him that 'if you enlist down south, you will train up north and vice versa'. He faked his way through the eye test and successfully enlisted.

Military service

Gordon's basic training was at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. His airborne training began in August 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia under Herbert Sobel. Gordon's nickname 'Smokey' came from his tobacco-chewing habit during the time with Easy Company. During training, Gordon found that he needed more water than others, therefore in the field he began carrying extra Hershey's bars as a way to gain access to his comrades' canteens. Gordon and Paul Rogers loved composing poems to tease their comrades that were in some kinds of trouble, and the victims would often explode in anger to their delight.