Buried at Pullman City Cemetery Service/branch United States Army Name Thomas Peacock | Allegiance United States Rank First Lieutenant Role Military Officer | |
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Born February 18, 1920 ( 1920-02-18 ) Died June 27, 1948(1948-06-27) (aged 28) Unit Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment,101st Airborne Division Similar Omar Bradley, Douglas MacArthur, John J Pershing Battles/wars World War II Relations Moses B. Peacock (father), Alma V. Peacock (mother) | ||
First Lieutenant Thomas Peacock (18 February 1920 - 27 June 1948) was a United States army officer during the Second World War. He was famous for his service in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division, United States Army during the Second World War. Peacock was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by David Nicolle.
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Military Service
Peacock made the combat jump with the 101st Airborne unit into Normandy on D-Day. After the battle in France, he was transferred to Easy Company as the assistant leader of First Platoon. Peacock participated in Operation Market Garden with Easy Company and took charge of First Platoon when Lieutenant Hudson, the platoon leader, got hit. He also fought to defend "The Island".
Peacock also fought in the Battle of the Bulge. During the battle, Captain Lewis Nixon won a thirty-day War-Bonds-tour furlough to the States in a lottery, but he did not want to go; instead, Peacock (who came in second) got the furlough. Peacock was generally considered by the men serving under him to be a big by-the-book officer and an incompetent combat leader. David Kenyon Webster had written much about his dissatisfaction towards Peacock in his book Parachute Infantry. Floyd Talbert, in his letter to Richard Winters, described Peacock as "a sincere and by-the-book officer, but not a soldier". In his biography Silver Eagle, Clancy Lyall called Peacock one of the idiot officers, so the men were happy to see him go and let someone else be in charge.
Peacock later returned to the Company to train the soldiers until the end of the war.
After the War
Thomas was a graduate of Washington State University. He had taken his law degree at the University of Michigan, and had planned to practice law in Spokane and Pullman. Peacock, along with his mother, tragically lost their lives in a car accident that occurred on a rural road a few miles west of Palouse. His father and wife, who were also present in the vehicle at the time, sustained injuries.