“ No.

”
“Caparzo made ninety-four. That means I probably saved the
hves 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 hght 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

51
 lighted with exploding shells. The soldiers stopped, and their eyes
turned upward to watch the show.
Miller knew that this battle wouldn’t reach them. He quietly
got the men’s attendon, and they began walking again , They
walked all night through fields and farmland.
As the morning light began to appear, Reiben, who had been
unusually quiet for a while, asked a question: “What ’s the best
thing that could happen. Do you know?”
Miller laughed, wanting his men to be cheerful. “ OK . What’s
the best thing that could happen?”
“ The best thing,” Reiben said, “ would be that we find Ryan—
dead .”
“ And why’s that best?”
“Sir, consider the possibilities. A: Ryan is alive, and we have to
take him back to the beach . You won’t let him help carry our
equipment like he should . We have to take care of him so he can !

be sent home to his mother. We all get killed trying to keep him
alive.”
“OK,” Miller said . He sounded like he agreed with Reiben ,
which made the men smile.
Reiben continued: “ Or B: Ryan’s dead. And you, sir, make us
check the body carefully to be sure that he’s dead and that he’s
the right Private Ryan. Then the Germans kill us while we ’re
checking.”
“ I don’t like that possibility,” Miller said .
“ Neither do I, sir,” said Reiben . “So let’s consider possibility
C: we find Ryan and he’s wounded.”
“ That’s not good,” Mellish said.
“ That’s the worst possibility,” Reiben agreed. “ If that happens ,
\ he won’t be able to help carry our equipment and we’ll have to
carry’ his equipment. And we’ll have to carry Private Ryan, too.”
“That could happen,” Miller said .
I
“ That’s what I’m saying, sir. The best situation is D : he’s dead
'

l!
!

52
and has been dead for a long time. We take his dog tags and hurry
back to the beach.”
“Do we take his body ? ” Mellish asked.
“ No! We leave him for a burial squad .”
“ I have a better idea,” Mellish said. “We shoot Reiben and
leave his body here. Then we change his dog tags so they say
‘RYAN ’ and send them to Ryan’s mother.”
“ That ’s an interesting idea ,” Miller said without laughing . “ It’s
a possibility.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Reiben said , “ but I like my idea better.”
Walking through the night, they didn’t see any other people.
Then about an hour after sunrise they heard sounds of activity
on the other side of a hedge. Looking through the hedge, the
squad saw hundreds of American soldiers mostly —
—
paratroopers and French civilians. There were six American
planes in the field ; one was damaged . Three sides of the field were
lined with hedges ; the fourth was a dirt road.
As Miller’s squad walked onto the field, a group from the
506 th was taking several German prisoners to a special area.
Miller knew that his boys were seeing the enemy for the first
time. He knew they would be shocked. The Germans looked so
— —
normal like themselves and so young.
Standing by the damaged plane, where the wounded were
gathering, a young American pilot motioned to them, and they
walked over. Wade went to take care of the wounded , and Miller
stopped in front of the pilot. “ Tell me what happened, Lieutenant.”
—
William Dewindt twenty-five, Scottsdale, Arizona replied, —
“ We were hit . Twenty-two men were killed .”
“Where’s the company? Who are all these people?”
“The guys we brought here left during the first night. Others
keep coming. Sooner or later an officer will come and make a
company from this mixed group. You’re a small group. You must
have had heavy casualties, too, sir.”

53
 “ No,” Miller said, “we’re on a special assignment, Lieutenant .
We’re looking for Private James Ryan, Baker Company, of the
506 th . Have you seen him? ”
“ I don’t know if I’ve seen him, sir,” Dewindt responded . “A lot
of guys have come and gone.”
Miller glanced over at his medic and asked, “ Did you find
anything? ”
Wade looked up and said , “ He 's not among these men.”
“ Upham,” Miller said. “ Talk to all of these paratroopers. Look
for Ryan or news about him .”
“ Yes, sir.” And Upham left.
Dewindt shook a small bag, tied on his belt. “ You might want
to look at these , too.”
Miller didn’t understand. “What are they ? ”
The pilot untied the bag and handed it to the captain . “ That’s
my dog-tag collection,” he said. “ There are more of them than I
can count. One could be your man’s.”
Miller took the bag and handed it to Jackson , saying, “See if
you can find Private Ryan ’s.”
“ Yes, sir.”
\ “ I’ll help,” Reiben offered.
They sat on the grass, and Mellish joined them. They passed
the bag, each taking a handful, checking them, and then putting
them on the empty bag. When they finished, they refilled the
bag, and Jackson handed it back to Dewindt . “ Ryan’s isn’t here,
i

sir,” he reported.
! Miller nodded to Dewindt and walked toward Upham, who
i
was in the middle of the field . The squad followed .
“Ryan’s not here,” Upham reported.
:!
“ Now what will we do, sir? ” Sarge asked Miller.
Miller stared at him and walked toward the road, where more
civilians and wounded were coming to join the soldiers. “ The
!
radios don’t work. No one’s in command . . . ”
i
! 54
(1
 His men followed him , feeling concerned . “ Is he complaining,”
Reiben whispered to Mellish , “ or going crazy?”
Miller stopped suddenly, and everybody else did, too. “ I have
an idea,” he said. “ Let’s separate into two groups and wander
around the countryside calling Ryan ’s name. Sooner or later, he’ll
hear us.”
“ Good idea, sir,” Sarge said . Was Miller joking or not ? “But
that could take a lot of time.”
“ OK , let’s ask the local civilians,” Miller said. “ Maybe they’ve
seen him.”
An old couple walking down the road into the field halted as
the captain moved quickly toward them, asking if they knew
Ryan. The old couple spoke in French and moved quickly away.
Upham whispered to Reiben and Mellish, “ They think he’s
crazy.”
A group of paratroopers walked by them, taking more
German prisoners to the special area . Miller called to them , “ One
hundred first! Do any of you know a guy named Ryan?”
The paratroopers shook their heads, no. But as the line of men
passed by, Miller kept asking, becoming increasingly frustrated.
His men were worried.
Then a voice from down the line called out to another
paratrooper, “Joe, isn’t Michaelson’s friend’s name Ryan ? The one
from Company C?”
“ I think so, yes!” a voice called back.
“Bring Michaelson here!” the paratrooper shouted .
Soon two paratroopers stood before Miller and his squad .
“Do either of you know a guy named Ryan ? ” Miller asked .
“Michaelson knows a guy named Ryan, Captain,” the
paratrooper on the left said. “But you’ll have to speak loudly. A
grenade went off next to him and damaged his hearing.”
“ Do you know Ryan? ” Miller shouted to Michaelson.
“Who? ”

55
 “Ryan! Do you know Ryan ?”
“Jimmy Ryan?”
Behind him, Millers men listened closely now. Reiben
whispered to Mellish, “He’s not crazy—he’s magic.”
Miller was grinning and nodding. “James Francis Ryan? ”
“Jimmy Ryan? What?”
Miller turned to his men. “Who’s got a pencil?”
“S i r . . I t was Upham, holding out a short pencil. “. . . I have
only this small one, sir.”
The captain and corporal looked at each other without
expression, but their eyes shared a smile as they remembered their
last conversation about the pencil.
Then Miller asked, “Do you have paper, Upham? ”
“ Yes, sir,” he said and held up a small notebook.
“Good. Now write this down: ‘Do you know James Francis
Ryan?”’
Upham nodded, wrote the message, and held up the notebook
for Michaelson to read.
“Of course I know him!” Michaelson shouted. “ He’s my best
friend .”
“Does he know where Ryan is?” Miller said to Upham, who
wrote the message and held it up.
Michaelson nodded and said, “Yes. We missed our drop zone
by about thirty kilometers. Jimmy, me, and a couple other guys
were coming here to our meeting point! We met a colonel who
was gathering men to go to Ramelle . . . That’s the last time I saw
him.”
The men of Miller’s squad smiled at each other, excited by this
news; their expedition had turned into a real mission.
Miller patted Michaelson’s shoulder. “Thank you!”
“What?”
I', The captain sighed and told the other paratrooper, “Thank
him for me, please, when he can hear again.”
I
56
;;
, 1'
 A minute later Miller had opened a map on the grass, and his
men gathered around him. He pointed as he said, “We’re hert
Ramelle is there. On the Merderet River, about twenty-five
kilometers away.”
Sarge thought for a second. “Why Ramelle ? ” he asked.
Miller unfolded the map more and pointed as he spoke. He
didn’t notice that his hand was shaking, but his men did they—
were staring at his trembling fingers, not at the map.
“ The target has always been Cherbourg,” Miller said . “ We
can’t go on to Paris unless we take an important port. The
Germans know that, of course , and they’ll cross the Merderet and
hit us when we turn to go to Cherbourg. That makes any village
on the river with a bridge very important.”
—
And the captain pointed at the map right at Ramelle, where
the bridge was clearly indicated.
“ That’s where we’ll find Private Ryan,” he said.
He looked at his men and realized that they were staring at his
trembling hand. Without speaking, he folded up the map. Then
he said , “Let’s go!”

Chapter 11 Germans

Morning had ended and afternoon begun as the soldiers walked

through the French countryside.
“ I think fighting in the Pacific is easier,” Reiben said to the
others.”
“ I don ’t know,” Mellish said.
“The Germans look like us , but the Japanese don ’t . Shooting
Japanese is easier.”
Miller, at the front of the fine, smiled to himself as he realized
that the German prisoners had affected his boys.
“ I don’t have any trouble shooting Germans,” Mellish said .

57