William Guarnere Staff Sergeant William J . Guarnere ( born April 28 , 1923 ) is a former 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 . Guarnere was portrayed in the HBO miniseries " Band of Brothers " by Frank John Hughes . Guarnere wrote " Brothers in Battle , Best of Friends : Two WWII Paratroopers from the Original Band of Brothers Tell Their Story " with Edward Heffron and Robyn Post in 2007 . Youth . William Guarnere was born in South Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , the youngest of 10 children , to Joseph " Joe " and Augusta Guarnere , who were of Italian origin . He joined the Citizens Military Training Camp ( CMTC ) program during the Great Depression . Guarnere ' s mother told the Government her son was 17 while he was , in fact , only 15 . He spent three summers in the CMTC , which took four years to complete . The plan was : upon completing his training , he would become an officer in the United States Army . Unfortunately , after his third year the program was canceled due to the pending war in Europe . After the attack on Pearl Harbor and six months before graduation , Guarnere left South Philadelphia High School and went to work for Baldwin Locomotive Works , making Sherman tank s for the Army . This greatly upset his mother because none of the other children had graduated from high school . In response , Guarnere switched to the night shift and returned to school , earning his diploma in 1941 . Because of his job he had an exemption from military service , but did not use it . On August 31 , 1942 in his hometown , Guarnere enlisted in the paratroops and started training at Camp Toccoa , Georgia . Military service . Guarnere joined Easy Company , 2nd Battalion , 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment , 101st Airborne Division . He made his first combat jump on D - Day as part of the Allied invasion of France . Guarnere earned the nickname “ Wild Bill ” because of his reckless attitude towards the Germans . [ Another nickname for him was " Gonorrhoea " because of its similarity to his last name ( this was used in the mini - series " Band of Brothers " ) ] . He displayed strong hatred for the Germans because one of his elder brothers , Henry , had been killed fighting the German Army in the Italian campaign at Monte Cassino . Guarnere lived up to his nickname . A terror on the battlefield , he fiercely attacked the Germans he came into contact with . In the early morning hours of June 6 , he joined up with Lieutenant Winters and a few other men trying to reach their objective , to secure the small village of Sainte - Marie - du - Mont and the exit of causeway number 2 leading up from the beach . As the group headed south , they heard a German supply platoon coming and took up an ambush position . Winters told the men to wait for his command to fire , but Guarnere was eager to avenge his brother and , thinking Winters might be a Quaker and hesitant to kill , opened fire first , killing most of the unit . Later , on the morning of June 6 , he was also eager to join Richard Winters in assaulting a group of four 105mm Howitzers at Brécourt Manor . Winters named Guarnere Second Platoon Sergeant as a group of about 11 or 12 men attacked a force of about 50 . The attack led by Winters was later used as an example of how a small squad - sized group could attack a vastly larger force in a defensive position . Guarnere was wounded in mid - October 1944 while Easy was securing the line on " The Island " on the south side of the Rhine . As the sergeant of Second Platoon , he had to go up and down the line to check on and encourage his men , who were spread out over a distance of about a mile . While driving a motorcycle ( that he had stolen from a Dutch farmer ) across an open field , he was shot in the right leg by a sniper . The impact knocked him off the motorcycle , fractured his right tibia , and lodged some shrapnel in his right buttock . He was sent back to England on October 17 . While recovering from injuries , he didn ' t want to be assigned to another unit , so he put black shoe polish all over his cast , put his pants leg over the cast , and walked out of the hospital in severe pain . He was caught by an officer , court - martial ed , demoted to private , and returned to the hospital . He told them he would just go AWOL again to rejoin Easy Company . The hospital kept him a week longer and then sent him back to the Netherlands to be with his outfit . He arrived at Mourmelon - le - Grand , just outside Reims , where the 101st was on R and R ( rest and recuperation ) , about December 10 , just before the company was sent to the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium , on December 16 . Because the paperwork did not arrive from England about his court - martial and demotion , he was put back in his same position . While holding the line just up the hill south west of Foy , a massive artillery barrage hit the men in their position . Guarnere lost his right leg in the incoming barrage while trying to help his wounded friend Joe Toye ( who could not get up because he had also lost his right leg ) . This injury ended Guarnere ' s participation in the war . Guarnere received the Silver Star for combat during the Brecourt Manor Assault on D - Day , and was later decorated with two Bronze Star s and two Purple Heart s , making him one of only two Easy Company members ( the other being Lynn Compton ) to be awarded the Silver Star throughout the duration of the war while a member of Easy . A third man , Gerald J . Loraine ( 27 March 1913 — 19 May 1976 ) , received the Silver Star for his participation on D - Day , however he was a member of Service Company , 506th , not a member of Company E . In his autobiography , " Beyond Band of Brothers ; Memoirs of Major Richard Winters " , Richard Winters referred to Ronald Speirs and Guarnere as " natural killers " . In making those statements about both men , Winters expressed respect , not negativity . Later years . Guarnere returned to the USA in March 1945 and took on many odd jobs . He wore an artificial right leg until he was able to secure full disability from the Army , threw away the limb and retired . He became an active member of many veterans organizations , and presides over many Easy Company reunions . Guarnere wrote " Brothers in Battle , Best of Friends : Two WWII Paratroopers from the Original Band of Brothers Tell Their Story " with Edward Heffron and Robyn Post , outlining Easy Company ' s experiences . The book was published by Berkley Publishing Group , Penguin Books in 2007 .