Herbert Sobel Biography
(U.S. Army Officer)
Birthday: January 26, 1912 (Aquarius)
Born In: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Herbert M. Sobel Sr. was a commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a well-known company in the US Army. He fought in the 101st Airborne Division during the World War II. Some of the veterans who served under Herbert described him as “an inflexible tyrant of a drill sergeant”. According to them, he was a man “who drew hard lines over petty issues”. He was described as an incompetent leader, who would get his team members killed in the battle, which ultimately led to his removal from his position of leadership. He was also a poor map-reader, which led to several wrong decisions. Sobel was a hated man and this perpetuated a lifetime of misery for him. Although he was not a fundamentally bad person, he was portrayed as one because of the circumstance in which he was placed. Despite his shortcomings, Sobel was a strategist, and he played a vital role in shaping the Easy Company. Sobel’s role as a drill sergeant was to train young soldiers into hardened, combat warriors. His later life was a sad one. In 1970, he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. The bullet left him blind for the rest of his life. He died on September 30, 1987, due to malnutrition. No services were held for him after his death, and none of his family members attended his funeral. He was later characterized in the HBO miniseries titled ‘Band of Brothers,’ based on the book of the same name by historian Stephen Ambrose.