Horvath-What's with your hand? Miller-I don't know. Started at Portsmouth when they brought us down for inbarkation. And it comes and goes. Horvath-You may have to get yourself a new line of work. This one doesn't seem to agree with you anymore. Miller starts laughing. Horvath-What? What? Miller-What was the name of that kid? At Anzio? The one that was always walking around on his hands. You know, and he was singin that song, the man on the flyin trapeze. Horvath-Vecchio. Miller-Vecchio. Vecchio, he's a goofy kid. Horvath-Rememeber he used to pee a V on everybodies jacket for Vecchio? For victory. Miller-Vecchio. Horvath-He was so short. Miller-He was a midget. Horvath-He wanted to be a ranger. He got shot in the foot once didn't he? And he'd fallen on his ass. Miller-He could run faster on his hands than feet. Vecchio, yeah. Caparzo. You see when, when you end up killing one of your men you tell yourself it happened so you could save the lives of two or three or ten others, maybe one hundred others. You know how many men I've lost under my command? Horvath-How many. Miller-Ninety four. But that means I've saved the lives of ten times that many, doesn't it? Maybe even twenty times. Twenty times as many. And that's how simple it is. That's how, that's how you rationalize of making the choice between the mission and the men. Horvath-Except this time the mission is a man. Miller-This Ryan better be worth it. He better go home, cure some disease, or invent a longer lasting lightbulb or something. And the truth is, I wouldn't trade ten Ryans for one Vecchio or one Caparzo. Horvath-Amen. Miller looks down to find his hand shaking. Miller-Look, there it goes again. Horvath-Sir, are you all right? Miller-Look, we're gonna move out in two hours so why don't you get some sleep?
Reiben-I don't know how he does it. Mellish-What's that. Reiben-Falls asleep like that. I mean look at him, the guy's lights out the minute his head hits the pack. Mellish-Clear conscience. Reiben-Yeah, what's he say? If God's on our side, who the hell could be on theres? Upham-If God be for us, who could be against us? Reiben-Yeah and what did I say? Wade-Well actually, the trick to falling asleep is trying to stay awake. Reiben-How's that? Wade-Well when my mother was an intern she used to uhm...work late through the night, sleep through the day. So the only time we ever got to talk about anything was when she'd get home. So what I used to do, I used to lie on my bed and try to stay awake as long as I could but it never worked cuz the harder I'd try the faster I'd fall asleep. Reiben-Well that wouldn't have mattered none at my house. My mom, she would come home, shook me awake, chat me up till dawn. I swear that woman was never too tired to talk. Mellish-It was probably the only time she could ever get a word in. Wade-The only thing is sometimes she would come home early and I'd pretend to be asleep. Mellish-Who, your mom? Wade-Yeah. She'd stand in the doorway looking at me and I'd just keep my eyes shut. I knew she just wanted to find out about my day so she came home early just to talk to me. And I still wouldn't move. I'd still pretend to just be asleep. I don't know why I did that. Miller-We've got a couple hours. Why don't you try to get some sleep? Upham-Captain? Sir? Miller-Corporal? How you doing there? You all right? Upham-Yeah, I think this is all good for me, sir. Miller-Really. How is that? Upham-War educated the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man. Miller-Well, I guess that's Emersons way of finding the bright side. Upham-You know Emerson, sir? Miller-I know some. Upham-So where you from captain? What did you do before war? Miller-What's the pool up to? Upham-Up over three hundred, sir. Miller-Well when it gets up to five hundred I'll give you the answers and we'll split the money. How about that? Upham-Well if that's the way you feel sir, I feel that it's my duty and your command to suggest that we wait until it gets up to a thousand sir. Miller-And what if we don't live that long? Upham-Five hundred. Miller-Five hundred would be good, yeah. Get some sleep Corporal. Upham-Yes sir.
