In 1920: April 20, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald, the fearless United States Army officer.

 HE WAS FEARLESS - HAPPY HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY!

In 1920: April 20, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Charles Speirs  was a United States Army officer who served in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. 

He was initially assigned as a platoon leader in B Company of the 1st Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 

Speirs was reassigned to D Company of the 2nd Battalion prior to the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and later assigned as commander of E Company during an assault on Foy, Belgium after the siege of Bastogne was broken during the Battle of the Bulge. He finished the war in the European Theater as a captain.

 Speirs served in Korea, as a major commanding a rifle company and as a staff officer. He later became the American governor for Spandau Prison in Berlin. He retired as a lieutenant colonel.

In the award-winning television miniseries Band of Brothers, he was portrayed by Matthew Settle. 

In Band of Brothers, Lieutenant Ronald Speirs is a subject of many rumors and stories - but did he really run straight through the German line at Foy? 

In Band of Brothers, Lieutenant Ronald Speirs (Matthew Settle) is a man whose reputation precedes him - though the other soldiers of Easy Company are never quite sure which stories are true and which are not. 

After Speirs is called upon to lead Easy in an assault on German troops in the Belgian town of Foy in episode 7, "The Breaking Point," Carwood Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) witnesses a new legend being born as Speirs sprints across the town through the midst of enemy soldiers - not once, but twice - in order to communicate with a US company attacking from the other flank. So, did this actually happen in real life?

Speirs' sprint through Foy is lifted straight from Stephen A. Ambrose's non-fiction book Band of Brothers, upon which the HBO miniseries was based.

 Beginning in 1990, Ambrose compiled stories from the surviving veterans of Easy Company about their experiences in the war and put together a cohesive version of events based on these different accounts. 

While some of the stories about Speirs might be exaggerated or glamorized, the depiction of his fearless run across Foy is true.