Saving Private Ryan
June 6, 1944. Military forces converge on the
beaches of Normandy for one of the
most decisive battles of World War Two.
America would call this a victory.
History would call it D-Day. But for
Captain Miller and his squad of young
soldiers, the day after the landing on
Omaha Beach would change all of there
lives. They would get a special order
from Washington ordering them to go on a
personnel mission to save one life.
One soldier lost three of his brothers in
combat. One on Omaha Beach, one on
Utah Beach, and the other in New Guinea. They
realize this is not a simple
mission to save a life but a test of their honor
and duty. Their sole
obsession-and their last hope for redemption. Upon arriving
at Omaha Beach
Captain Miller was faced with many problems. The Germans were
awaiting the
arrival of the American forces and attacked the ships landing on
the beach
before the troops were even able to exit the boats. Many of Millers
men were
lost on the beach along with many men from many other companies. Miller
lead
his mean along a wall on the beach and over took German forces to escape
with
most of this troop in tact. What he didn’t realize was that on of the
men
lost on the beach was a Private Ryan. Captain Miller continued to lead
his men
into enemy territory despite the loss of some of his men. He then
reached a
friendly base set up. Upon arriving at the base he received orders
that his
mission would be changing. He was told of the Private Ryan that died
at the
Omaha beach invasion. He was also told of the other two Ryan boys
from Iowa that
had already died in the war. He wasn’t really sure why he was
being told this.
Then the worst part came. He was ordered to try to find
the one remaining Ryan
brother. No one was sure where he was or if he was
even alive. He was told of an
earlier incident where three brothers from Iowa
had all been killed in the war
and the mother was left alone. The United
States army was now ready to risk the
lived of Captain Miller and seven of
his men to try and save this one man just
so his mother wouldn’t have to lose
her only remaining son. To Captain Miller
this seemed a little extreme. Think
of our mothers thought Miller and his men.
They had no choice though,
they were under orders. Along the way Millers company
would stop by another
American base to pick up an American soldier to translate
to the German
civilians they would meet along the way. They traveled to may
abandoned and
demolished remains of what used to be towns in search of Private
Ryan.
Miller lost many of his men along the way during encounters with
German
paratroopers and hidden German machine gun nests. But despite loosing
many men
they were able to continue. The met remaining parts of an American
Paratrooping
unit along the way to somewhat replenish their forces. But the
paratroopers
weren’t in much better shape than Millers bunch. They continued
in search of
Ryan and finally found him in a town on the river. He was in
a patchwork
infantry trying to prevent the Germans from taking a bridge that
was vital to
the strategies of the United States Army. Private Ryan wouldn’t
leave with
Miller though, he insisted on staying and fighting the
Germans. He didn’t want
to be remembered as a coward. Miller agreed, and his
men, battered and beaten,
also agreed to stay and fight one last fight before
going home. They managed to
hold off the German advances until help arrived.
They again lost many men in
this effort but Private Ryan survived. Captain
Miller has reached his goal and
Ryan would make it home. I thought this
was a very good book. I thought it made
a very good point about some of the
difficult decisions facing the men in the
middle of a hostile environment in
another country and the bravery shown by many
men in the heat of battle. I
can’t say if I were placed in the same position
if I would be able to do the
same thing as some of those men. To risk the lives
of several men to save the
life of one is a very difficult decision to make.
Especially when no one
even knew if Private Ryan had even made it off the beach
alive or if he was
killed in battle. I believe that if I were one of the men
with the mission of
saving one man just because his the U.S. Army didn’t want
to tell his mother,
I would have a serious problem with obeying those orders.