Saving private Ryan

ves of war-ships. Perturbed by neither the glowering sky nor the towering whitecaps came ten lanes, twenty miles across, of sleek new attack transports, rust-pocked old freighters, c

of fifteen hundred landing craft, which would make the twelve-mile

uding LCIs (Landing Craft, Infantry) carrying two hundred-some troops apiece, and th

plus

, Jr., who made his fortune selling speedy boats to bootleggers (and speedier ones t

fresh out

dier; his rank reflected escalating battlefield commissions, earned by

g craft, a small taxi-cab of combat piloted by a single Navy coxswain, a big trough

n, with clean-shaven, soft fea

w all too well that he was a fugitive from the law of average

ing. And this was no game. He hoped his boys had not seen his trembl

and the fl

ys had noticed

e soldiers like rag dolls, sending them smashing and tumbling into each other, slender young men fat with equipment, wearing inflatable "Mae West" life preserv-ers, carrying various weapons (rifles, mortars, bazoo-kas, flamethrowers), canvas bags, gas masks,

ad across the little ship, as if it

since filled and buried at sea. Their helmets came off and were soon brimming with the remnants of the fabulous condemned-man st

s out wasn't a problem. A lot of the guys were helping o

icago, Illinois, had bought them up for a nickel apiece, on the troop ship, throughout their several long days of waiting. Caparzo had figured to make a smal

n his pale oval face they seemed like black beads, began ha

twenty-one, Yonkers, New York. He lunged rig

er the fact. He had the soft petulant featur

e wartime supply

ar debt." The bo

it make? You really think we're gonna b

ded, lifting from the water just as a fifteen-inch n

e unseen land ahead told them th

o the for-mer, his face turning camouflage green, his neck extending like a cannon taking

e no one was looking, he plucked the slimy but hardly used pills from the puke pu

kept in combat-like his own tremulous hand. Again he stared at it

blocky battle-scarred vet pushing thirty. Like the captain, the ser

to their prayin

much boating," Sarge sa

d fishing hole,"

final burst of adolescence, sleeping all over the place, on the deck

e unseen land ahead told them th

o the for-mer, his face turning camouflage green, his neck extending like a cannon taking

e no one was looking, he plucked the slimy but hardly used pills from the puke pu

kept in combat-like his own tremulous hand. Again he stared at it

blocky battle-scarred vet pushing thirty. Like the captain, the ser

to their prayin

much boating," Sarge sa

d fishing hole,"

final burst of adolescence, sleeping all over the place, on the deck

e unseen land ahead told them th

o the for-mer, his face turning camouflage green, his neck extending like a cannon taking

e no one was looking, he plucked the slimy but hardly used pills from the puke pu

kept in combat-like his own tremulous hand. Again he stared at it

blocky battle-scarred vet pushing thirty. Like the captain, the ser

to their prayin

much boating," Sarge sa

d fishing hole,"

final burst of adolescence, sleeping all over the place, on the deck