Frederick Heyliger

Frederick Heyliger
File:Frederick T Heyliger 506e.jpg
Nickname(s)	The Moose
Born	(1916-06-23)June 23, 1916 Acton, Massachusetts
Died	Concord, Massachusetts
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1940–1947
Rank	Captain
Unit	Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of Normandy Operation Market Garden
Awards	Bronze Star Purple Heart American Campaign Medal European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal Military Cross
Relations	Mary (wife) Vic Heyliger (brother)

Captain Frederick Theodore 'Moose' Heyliger (June 23, 1916 – November 3, 2001) was an officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II. He took part in D-Day and Operation Market Garden.

Heyliger was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Stephen McCole.

Youth

Heyliger was born in Concord, Massachusetts, a small suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Heyliger worked as a farm hand throughout his youth, and graduated from the Lawrence Academy at Groton in 1937. Heyliger completed three years of college where he served with the Army National Guard. On November 25, 1940, he enlisted in the Air Corps (USAAC) and trained as an aviation cadet before entering and graduating from Officer Candidate School. In 1941, when the USAAC was abolished as an organization and transformed into a branch subordinate to the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), Heyliger transferred to the US Army and volunteered for the Paratroopers where he was eventually assigned to Easy Company.

Military service

After Richard Winters was promoted to Battalion Executive Officer (XO), First Lieutenant Heyliger took command of Easy Company from Winters' first replacement because that man failed to measure up. As First Lieutenant, Heyliger was in command of Easy Company during Operation Pegasus on October 23, 1944 and oversaw the rescue and evacuation of some of the British 1st Airborne Division that were still stranded on the German side of the line after the failed Operation Market Garden across the Rhine. After the successful rescue of 138 men from the British 1st Airborne Division, for which he received the British Military Cross, he was accidentally shot by one of his own men, an uneasy veteran, on October 31, 1944, while on patrol and talking with Richard Winters about commanding Easy Company. He then underwent skin and nerve grafts before being discharged in February 1947.

Later years

After Heyliger returned home to Massachusetts, he enrolled at the University of Massachusetts and graduated in 1950 with a degree in ornamental horticulture. He married in 1964, to a woman named Mary. Heyliger died on November 3, 2001, in Concord, Massachusetts, at the age of 85, one day before the Band of Brothers miniseries aired its last episode.