Chapter 9 Private Ryan

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“Jackson,” Miller said. “Take Mellish. Check the snipers house.
We don’t want any more danger coming from there.”
“Yes, sir,” Jackson said, and Mellish joined him. They walked
past Reiben and Wade, who was bandaging a deep wound in
Reiben’s forehead.
“Forget Private Ryan,” Reiben said angrily. “Forget him.”
“Stop it,” Jackson said as he passed the two men.
“Caparzo’s just the first of us to die trying to save Private
Ryan,” Reiben complained. “ You’ll see.”
“Private Ryan didn’t kill Caparzo,” Wade responded. “A
German sniper did.”
While his men continued their journey down the street to the
town center, Miller looked at Caparzo’s bloody letter. He started
to pick it up and realized that Wade was also looking at it. The
two men hesitated, staring at each other. Then Wade picked up
the letter, put it in his pocket, and joined the rest of the men
going down the Street-
Miller glanced up at the man and his wife. Their expressions
told him that they finally understood. The Americans were not
going to take their two children to a safer place. He smiled and
waved goodbye to the children in the doorway behind him. Then
he followed his men, carefully surveying the street and the
surrounding buildings. He did not want to lose another man . . .
Jackson and Mellish entered the small house on the hillside,
and Mellish stayed downstairs while Jackson went up. He looked
around the small rooms carefully.They were empty. The last room
he entered had a huge hole in the floor. Looking down through
the hole, he saw the body of the sniper he had shot.
Mellish stood near the dead body, looking up. “Come down,
Jackson,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Soon the two men joined Miller and the squad, and Sergeant

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HU1 and his men , in the town center. The sound of bullets made
the men a little nervous , and they kept their guns and rifles ready
as they walked.
Miller and Hill stopped in a doorway together. Miller pointed
to a machine gun in a third-floor window across the open area,
indicating that they needed to move quickly.
Suddenly a voice from that window called out: “Thunder! ” A
very American voice.
Hill called back, “ Flash!”
The captain and sergeant smiled and then stepped out and led
their men across the open area . When they reached the building,
they separated and went in different doors .
Miller’s group entered a large room full of broken furniture,
wood from the ceiling, and broken bricks. As they walked through
the room, the captain saw five men sitting in the shadows against
the wall. He didn’t look closely at these men; he’d been told that
this building was controlled by the Americans. Then the men in
the shadows turned around and faced them. Miller realized that
—
their uniforms were gray not green . They were Germans!
The Germans and Americans, equally shocked, looked at each
other and then began to shout in their native languages for the
others to surrender. After a few minutes they stopped, and it was
—-
quiet no one spoke or moved.
Suddenly one of the young Germans got scared and raised his
gun. Before Miller could react, machine-gun fire rained down
and the five Germans were dead .
When it was quiet again, Sergeant Hill and his men entered
the room, ready to shoot. The captain above called down to
them . Miller and his men stood up and moved so they could see
who had saved then lives. Upstairs, they saw a dozen American
paratroopers staring down at them. Their leader, Captain
—
DeWayne Hamill thirty-one, San Diego, California looked —
confused.

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 “ We’ve come for Private Ryan,” Miller explained .
HamilL and his paratroopers came downstairs and joined
Miller’s squad and Hills men . Together they left the building and
went to the northern edge of the city. This section of the city of
Neuville was controlled by Americans. The sight of American
tanks around its edge made Miller feel safe.
When they came to train tracks, Miller and his men paused
while Hamill spoke to the lieutenant standing there. “Bring
Private Ryan here,” he ordered .
“ Ryan!” the lieutenant called out to the paratroopers standing
along the edge of the section . “ Come here!”
A helmeted soldier came out of a hole and ran to them.
“ Sir,” the man said . “ Private James Ryan reporting as ordered ,
sir.”
“ This is Captain Miller,” Hamill told him. “ He wants to talk to
you.” I
“Private,” Miller said gently, “ I’m. afraid I have some bad news
for you.”
“Sir?”
“There’s no easy way to say this, son,” Miller said. He paused
briefly and then continued , “ Your brothers are dead .”
“ What ? ” The boy’s face became pale and he dropped to the
ground. “Dead . . . dead, sir? All of them are dead ? ”
Miller nodded seriously down at him. “We’ve been sent to
take you home, son. You ’re going home.” I
“Oh, my God,” the boy said , and he began to cry. “My
brothers . . . oh, my God , my sweet little brothers . . . ”
Hamill patted the boy’s shoulder. “We’re sorry for your loss,
James. I can’t tell you how much.”
“ How . . . how did they . . . die? ” Ryan asked .
“ They were killed in action ,” Miller said .
The boy frowned, confused, “What . . . what kind of action ? ” !
“ I don’t know the details. I’m truly sorry.”

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 “ This can’t be . .
“ Its always hard to accept something like this.”
The boy’s tears stopped . “ No, I mean it can ’t be true. Ned and
Richie, they’re both in elementary school.”
Now Miller was the one who was surprised.
“ Is that it ?” Ryan asked. “ A school-yard accident ? ”
Miller studied the boy. “ You are James Ryan ?”
“ Yes.”
“James F. ? ”
“ That ’s right. So they are dead?” And his tears began again.
Miller tried again, “ You’re James Francis Ryan? ”
He shook his head. “James Frederick Ryan.”
Miller wondered if there was a mistake on the middle name.
He asked, “ Iowa ?”
“Minnesota.” He was still crying. “Does . . . does this mean my
brothers are all right? ”
“ Yes, I’m sure they are,” Miller said . “We’re looking for
another James Ryan .”
lames Frederick Ryan was still crying. “ Are you sure my
brothers are OK ? How do you know they are?”
“ This is just a mistake, son. I’m sorry.”
“So you’re not taking me home? ”
“ No. We’re not.” Ryan sat on a box, crying. Some of his
friends came over to comfort him; other paratroopers standing
nearby had heard the discussion and were laughing.
Feeling bad, Miller stood close to Captain Hamill and said,
“ I’m sorry for the mistake.”
They walked away from the train tracks. Hamill stayed with
them. Sarge moved up to Miller and asked, “So, where is our Ryan?”
“ I don’t know,” Miller said . He turned to Hamill . “ Are you in
contact with your Commanding Officer? ”
“ No,” he answered. But he wanted to help. “ What unit is your
Ryan in? ”

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 “ Baker Company, 506th .”
Hamill called to Sergeant Hill, who was smoking with his
men . “ That guy who broke his foot is from the 506 th , isn’t he? ”
—
“ Yes Charlie Company, 1 think.”
Hamill looked at Miller. “ Its not Baker Company, but it’s a start.”
“ It’s more than I know now. Where do we go? ”
“ Follow me . . . ”
Hamill and Miller went to a bombed-out grocery store where
the wounded of the 101st were sitting. Hamill spoke to one of
the paratroopers. i
The boy looked up at the two captains and said, “Ryan? Sorry,
I don’t know him.”
“Where were you dropped? ” Miller asked.
“ NearVierville.”
“ Well , how did you get here? ”
“Sir, our plane was fired at, and our pilot tried to avoid the
bullets. We turned around a lot, and this is where we landed. I’m
just glad to be alive.”
Miller nodded. “ Did anyone in Baker Company say where
they would be dropped ? ”
“ No, sir . . . but I know Baker Company had the same meeting
place as us .”
Miller was satisfied to finally get some information. He took
out a map and unfolded it.
“ Good,” he said . “ Show me.”
Soon Miller and Hamill rejoined the squad and Sergeant Hill
and his men, who were waiting outside the store.
“Do we have someplace to go ? ” Sarge asked Miller.
“ Yes,” Miller said . “ We’ll wait until dark and then leave.” He
looked at Hamill and asked, “Do you have a place where we can
sleep? ”
“Of course,” Hamill said. “Sergeant Hill, take them to the
church.”

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 “ Yes, sir,” Hill said. The men followed the sergeant , leaving the
two captains alone.
Miller and Hamill sat down and talked about the war. They
didn’t often find someone they could talk to. After a while,
Hamill shook his head and said , “We could use your help
here.”
“ I’d like to help. But orders are orders.”
“ I know. Anyway, I understand what you’re doing. Good luck
with your mission, friend.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
“ Find that lucky soldier and send him home.”
They talked for another hour, and then Miller went to the
church to join his men . Jackson was on guard outside the
building.
“ Thunder,” Miller said.
“ Flash,” Jackson responded.
“Jackson,” Miller said . “Why are you the only one in the squad
who doesn’t think I’m heardess.”
“ I do think you ’re heardess ,” he said. “ That’s your job right
now, and I thank God you’re doing it . And you do it well , sir.”
Miller smiled at Jackson, nodded , went inside, and walked
through the ruins of the building. Wade was on one of the
benches, writing something. Without looking, Miller knew what
Wade was doing: copying Caparzo’s letter from the bloody paper
to a clean one.
“We’ll leave in two hours,” he announced . “ Try to get some
sleep.”
Wade glanced at Miller angrily and continued copying. Miller
walked to another part of the room and noticed that Upham was
lying on a bench, shaking. The captain paused and quietly asked,
“ How are you doing, Corporal ?”
Upham smiled weakly. “ This is good for me, sir. All of it .”
“ How, son ? ”

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 Upham sat up. “War is an education. I can use what I’m
learning in my writing.”
He paused; his shaking had stopped . “ Captain . . . where are
you from ?”
“Why? ”
“ I was just wondering . . . what you did in civilian life ? ”
“How much money has been bet now ?” Miller asked .
Upham grinned. “ It’s over three hundred dollars.”
Miller thought about that . “When it’s five hundred. I’ll tell
you, and we’ll share the money.”
“If that’s how you feel, why don’t we wait until it’s a thousand
dollars?”
Miller shook his head . “ I might not five that long.”
Upham stopped grinning as he realized that his captain wasn’t
joking. “ OK. Five hundred.”
Miller went to the side of the church, sat on the floor, and
opened his maps. He studied them, using a small light. The men
around him were sleeping. The hand holding the light began to
shake.
“How long has it been shaking? ”
The voice was Sarge’s. Horvath sat next to his captain , who
answered, “ It started a long time ag< -back in Portsmouth when
we got on the boats. It doesn’t always do this.”
“Maybe you should think about getting a different job.”
Miller laughed gently. “ Yes. This one isn’t much fun .”
The two men talked about other battles they had been in
together. Miller shook his head and explained softly, “Every
time one of your boys gets killed, you tell yourself that you
saved the lives of two, three, ten, maybe a hundred other men
and boys.”
“That’s a good way to think about it.”
i;
“Do you know how many men have been killed under my
command? ”

ilf 50
if
1 ,
 “ No.”
“ Caparzo made ninety-four. That means I probably saved the
lives of ten times that many. Maybe twenty times. If you do the
—
math, you can choose the mission over the men every time.”
“But this time,” Sarge said , “ the mission is a man.”
“If that kid today had been our Private Ryan , would he have
been worth Caparzo? ” Miller asked .
“His mother might think so.”
“ I have a mother; you have a mother ; Caparzo had a mother
. . . I hope this Private James Francis Ryan is very special . I hope
—
he does something great with his life like cure cancer. Because
the truth is , I wouldn’t trade ten Ryans for one Caparzo.”
Horvath thought for a minute and then said, “ You know, Ryan
doesn’t just have a mother . . . he has a captain, too, who probably
feels the same about him as you do about these kids.”
Miller’s hand was shaking. He stared at it , trying to make it
stop. Then he stood up and looked at his watch.
“ It 's time to get up,” he called to his men . “Let’s go! ”
And the men woke up, put on their equipment, and followed
—
their captain out of the shelter of the church out into the night
and the waiting war.

Chapter 10 New Hope

Miller and his men walked cautiously along the edge of a field .
The only light came from the moon, and the only sounds were
the sounds of night birds and insects.
—
Miller was proud of his boys his men. At Omaha Beach they
had been new to fighting, but now they were experienced
soldiers. He noticed that Jackson and Wade were walking too
close to each other, and he gestured to them to move apart.
Suddenly there was a flash in the sky. Soon the entire sky was

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