The Plane Crash
Miller-Wade. Wade-Yes sir. Miller-See what you can do. Hold on fellas, it won't be much longer. Wade-What are we doing here. All right, yeah you're all right so don't worry about it. The doc's in town. Jackson-Don't worry fellas. 29th infantry's breakin through. They'll be here soon. Dewindt-Capn, hey capn. Miller-Soldier, you wanna fill me in? Dewindt-Hey yeah, Lieutenant Dewindt, sir. Ninety-ninth Troop Carrier Squadron, carrying the 327th glider infantry. This one was mine, sir. I was the pilot. Wade-Private, private take care of this storm here. Miller-Well where's the unit? Who are these people? Dewindt-Well the guys we came in with sir, they headed off first night. I haven't seen em since. Meantime, otherr guys just keep showin' up. One, two, half a dozen at a time. Then some officer will come along, patch together a mixed unit and often make trouble, sir. Miller-We were looking for a Private James Ryan. He was in Baker Company five oh six in the hundred and first. Dewindt-Got me, sir. A lot of guys come in and out of here, sir. Miller-Upham. Upham-Yes, sir. Miller-Check that squad. See if Ryan's in. Upham-Yes sir. Wade-Reiben? Smell that leg right there. Find out if it's smells of cheese. What? Dewindt-Yeah I couldn't pry him outta there hard as I tried. I need a winch. Horvath-Stars. Dewindt-Yep. Brigadier General Amend. Deputy Commander hundred and first. Some fucking genius had the great idea of welding a couple of steel plates onto our deck to keep the general safe from ground fire. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell me about it until we were just getting airborne. Well that's like trying to fly a fright train. Okay? Gross overload, trim characteristics all shot to hell. I nearly broke both my arms trying to get her level. And, and, and when we released, you know, I cut as hard as I could. Tried to gain and some altitude, still keep her from stalling. We came down like a fucking meteor. And this is how we ended up. The oth...the others, they stopped easy enough okay though, you know. We were just, we were just, we were just too damn heavy, you know? The grass was wet, downward slope and all. Twenty two guys dead. Miller-All that for a general? Dewindt-One man. Reiben-A lot of that going around. Dewindt-Fubar. Reiben-Fubar. Horvath-Fubar. Miller-Fubar. Jackson-Yall got that right. Upham-Hey, I looked up fubar in the German Dictionary. There's no fubar in the- Miller-Upham? Upham-Yes, sir.
Miller-There's more paratroops out there. Find out if one of them's Ryan. Upham-Yes, sir. Dewindt-Oh you might wanna check these out, sir. Dogtag. More than I really wanna count, sir. I've got covered a lot of bodies, sir. Miller-Jackson. Start going through those. Jackson-Yes, sir. Reiben-I'll help. Reiben-Well what do you think, Jackson? You think that little pricks in there? Jackson-Well if he is, I'm gonna find him. Reiben-I bid money saying this guy is still alive. Mellish-Two bucks says I nail him first. Reiben-Let's see what we got here. (?). Okay, you think this little shitbird's in here or what? Mellish-Just keep looking. Reiben-All right. Gary Ananago. Vin Almarcio. Mike Suzeski. I swear, all the guinies are buyin it. Jackson-Where is this son of a bitch? Reiben-Don't mix em up Jackson, all right? Keep em in your own fucking pile. How am I supposed to know who we got? Jackson-Why don't you just shut up Reiben, all right? Mellish-Everybody be friends. Jackson-I think I got a winner. Mellish-What are you talking about? Jackson-Ryan. Mellish-Ryan. You know what? Your a genius, you really are. R-I-E-N-N-E. That's Rienne, that's french, all right? You know what that means? Wade-What the hell are you doing? The whole goddamn airborne's watching. They aren't poker chips. Put em back in there! Miller-He's not here. Maybe we should bust up into a couple of different groups, huh? And wander the woods like Hansel and Grettel calling his name. He's bound to hear us sooner or later. Ryan! Horvath-That might be a little hard to do, capn. Miller-Maybe the locals have seen him. Hey do you know a...excusez moi, parlez vous Ryan? James Ryan? Ryan! Anybody know Ryan? 101st airborne? Ryan? You know a guy named Ryan? Private James Ryan from Iowa? Anybody know a Ryan? James Ryan? Soldier-Hey Joe! Doesn't...ah...Michaelson pal around with a Ryan from C Company? Joe-Yeah, I think so. Soldier-Well birng him up here, would ya? Miller-Do you know a Private Ryan? Michealson-You're gonna have to speak up, sir. My hearing isn't so good. It comes and goes. A german grenade went off right by my head. Miller-Got it, got it. Do you know Private Ryan? Michaelson-Who? Miller-Private Ryan? James Ryan? Michaelson-Jimmy Ryan? Miller-James. James Francis Ryan. Michaelson-No, no, no. James Francis Ryan. Miller-All right. Give me a pencil. Something to write on. Something to write on. Some...quick, quick come on, a pencil. Upham-Small one, sir. Miller-Write this down. James Francis Ryan, question mark. Iowa, question mark. Do, do you know him? Does he know him? Read the message, look. Michaelson-Yeah of course I know him, sir. Miller-Does he know where he is? Michaelson-Yeah, yeah. We missed our drop zone by about twenty miles. Ended up way over by uh...Bumville or some damn place. Him, me and a couple other guys were coming here to the rally point. Ran into a colonel who was gathering men to go to uh...Ramelle. Miller-Ramelle. Michaelson-To babysit a bridge. That's the last I've seen of him, sir. Miller-Great, great. Than, thank you. Write thank you. Read, read and thank you. Michaelson-Your welcome! Miller-Assemble around me. Ramelle...we're here. There. Ramelle is on the Merderet River right here. This is southwest of us. Horvath-What, do you think this was the bridge he was talking about, capn? Miller-Yep. The target has always been Cherbourg. We can't push no Paris until we take in deep water port and Rommell knows that so he's gonna try to get his armor across the Merderet river any where he can. That way, he can hit our invasion forces in flank when we make the big right turn to Cherbourg. That makes any village on that river, with an intact bridge, solid gold real estate. Let's go.
