Norman Dike

Lieutenant Colonel Norman Staunton Dike, Jr. (May 19, 1918 – June 23, 1989 ) was a commissioned officer in the United States Army and later the United States Army Reserve. During World War II he was a Lieutenant in the 101st Airborne Division, where one assignment was Company Commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Prior to military service
Dike was the son of a New York State Supreme Court judge. He was a 1937 graduate of St. Paul's School and a 1941 graduate of Brown University. He studied at Yale Law School prior to June 1942 but did not graduate at that time.

World War II
Dike became a lieutenant in the US Army some time before 25 May 1942. In England immediately before the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment departed for the D-Day marshaling areas, Lieutenant Dike was listed as the regimental S-2 (intelligence officer) (several other officers were specified as being either first or second lieutenants but Dike was only listed as a lieutenant).

Dike was transferred from Division HQ to Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in the first week of November 1944 becoming Company Commander. During the assault on Foy, Dike had ordered a platoon to go on a flanking mission around the rear of the town. During their charge, he ordered them to take cover. His subordinates informed him they were going to get killed because they were sitting ducks. At the same time, Captain Richard Winters, former commander of Easy Company and the Battalion executive officer, tried radioing him to tell him the same thing. Having no idea how to control the situation, Dike froze. As Carwood Lipton, at that time the company's first sergeant, later put it: "He fell apart." He was relieved during fighting at Foy by First Lieutenant Ronald Speirs under orders from Captain Winters, then moved on to become an aide to Maxwell Taylor, 101st Airborne Division.

In his autobiography (Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Richard Winters) Winters spoke in unflattering detail about Dike. Likewise, in Brothers in Battle—Best of Friends, William "Wild Bill" Guarnere and Edward "Babe" Heffron do not refer to him favorably. Dike was a poor soldier and leader and was unavailable during combat; these traits earned him the pejorative nickname of "Foxhole Norman" among the members of Easy Company.

Post war
After World War II, Dike remained in the Army Active Reserve and served during the Korean War, eventually attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. He resigned in 1957.

Later life
Dike received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1947. He became a member of the New York Bar in 1949 and the District of Columbia Bar in 1954. From 1950–1953, he was a U.S. Commissioner in Japan. He also worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1951–1953. He practiced law in New York City and in Washington, DC. In 1960, he became a permanent resident of Switzerland. He was an officer of the U.S. Uranium Company, United Western Minerals Company and other oil and mining interests in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Las Vegas, Nevada. He died in Rolle, Switzerland, on June 23, 1989.

Television
Dike was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Peter O'Meara.