Sgt Niland After Being example essay topic

470 words
The Hollywood story of Saving Private Ryan, elegantly portrays the partial reality behind this event. The real "Ryan" was actually a man from the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division known as Sgt. Fritz Niland. His three brothers were killed in action (KIA) overseas. His mother had received all three telegrams from the war department all in the same day. Sgt. Niland was soon to be removed from the front lines and returned home to his family. During the parachuting the day before the D-Day invasion at Utah beach Sgt. Niland was dropped way behind enemy lines like much of the 101st Airborne division.

Away from the rest of his platoon he found himself with a bunch of strangers. After he was informed of his family's great loss he would be immediately sent home. Sgt. Niland was soon picked up by a group of men and sent to London, England, the first leg of his long journey home, alone. Sgt. Niland's brothers were all KIA within a few days of each other. Sgt. Niland was going to see his brother, Bob, who was part of the 82nd. He found out that his brother's platoon had been surrounded by many Germans and had been annihilated.

His brother however fought valiantly. Bob had manned a machine gun and had killed many Germans. After burning through several boxes of ammunition Bob was shot and killed while reloading his weapon. Sgt. Niland after being informed of Bob's death, hitched a ride to the 4th infantry division. Another Brother, a platoon leader, had been killed during the D-Day invasion at Utah Beach.

After getting off of his landing craft Sgt. Niland's brother began to run up the beach, before being shot down by heavy German machine gun fire. The last of his three brothers was killed in the China-Burma-India theater had been killed that very same week. Father Francis Sampson was looking for Sgt. Niland after he had returned to Easy Company to inform him of this great loss to his family. Sgt. Niland's mother soon would receive the three telegrams from the war department. Sgt. Niland would be brought home on account of his mother not being able to take the pain of losing all of her son's in battle. In conclusion the story of Saving Private Ryan told some of the real events of what happened in those few days.

The Private was really a Sergeant, his name wasn't Ryan, it was Niland and all of his brothers didn't die in Germany, only two of them did. Niland was however sent home so that his mother would not have to cope with the loss of her four sons..