Nickname(s) Ed Name Edwin Pepping Rank Private First Class | Years of service 1942-1945 Allegiance United States | |
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Born July 4, 1922 (age 101)
Alhambra, California, United States ( 1922-07-04 ) Battles/wars World War II
Battle of Normandy Awards Bronze Star
Purple Heart Battles and wars Operation Overlord, World War II | ||
Service/branch United States Army | ||
Private First Class Edwin Pepping (born July 4, 1922) is a former soldier with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II. Pepping's life story was featured in the 2009 book We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from Band of Brothers
Contents
Youth
Pepping was born on Independence Day in Alhambra, California. At nineteen he was working in an electroplating plant.
Military service
Pepping enlisted in Los Angeles and volunteered to be a paratrooper. He was sent to Fort MacArthur and then to Toccoa, Georgia for training. There he was chosen to be a medic. As part of his medic training, he was in a medical detachment and was assigned to Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. During his time in Aldbourne, he dated a village girl.
Pepping's first combat jump, along with the rest of the first combat jump of the 101st Airborne Division, was into Normandy on D-Day of Operation Neptune (the assault phase of Operation Overlord) . Pepping was originally assigned to Flight 66, but for some unknown reason he switched planes with another medic, Earnest L. Oats. He therefore got off the plane right before it took off. Flight 66 was later shot down by German antiaircraft fire, and everyone on board was killed.
Upon landing, he had a concussion and cracked three vertebrae when his helmet hit his head, although he did not know it at the time. He helped with the wounded in various aid stations. Outside Beaumont, when Lieutenant Colonel Billy Turner was killed, the advance of tanks stopped as Turner was at the front of the moving column. Pepping helped pull Turner out so the tank column could move again. He received a Bronze Star for his action. Pepping was not able to join Easy Company in France because he had suffered a leg wound. He was evacuated to a hospital, where his uniform, equipment, and medals were stolen. He went AWOL from the hospital to rejoin Easy Company because a doctor would not let him out due to the severity of his wound. He was with his unit for fifty one days to set up for its next mission. After that, he was sent to serve in general hospitals in England and in France. He later operated a switchboard for trunk lines throughout France.
Later years
After the war, Pepping attended Woodbury University and worked in a music store for a while. He later attended an industrial design school and got into drafting. He worked as draftsman for the Apollo project. Pepping felt that he let his unit down for being knocked out after 15 days in Normandy, and did not keep in touch with the men of Easy Company. He only got involved again after the Emmy Awards reunion in 2002.