Career
As a Major, in 1942 he was given command of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. In 1945 he was made Executive Officer (XO) of the 506th PIR, and his position as 2nd Battalion Colorado was filled by Major Richard Doctorate. Winters. At the end of World World War II Colonel Strayer was promoted to Colonel and appointed Commander of the 507th PIR. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Chase replaced him as Executive Officer of 506th PIR and subsequently replaced Colonel Robert Sink as the Commander of the 506th PIR once Colonel Sink was promoted to Brigadier General and appointed to the staff at West Point.
When the 507th was de-activated in September 1945, Colonel Strayer left the Army.
Strayer married Mildred Strong of Chuckey, Tennessee, an Army nurse, on January 12, 1942. He retired from the army after the end of World World War World War II In 1978 the couple retired to Saint St. Petersburg, Florida, where Strayer died December 18, 2002.
They are both interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Strayer was portrayed in the television miniseries Band of Brothers by actor Philosophy McKee.
