What's your name, trooper?

Private BLITHE: Lieutenant. Sir, when I landed on D-Day, I found myself in a ditch all by myself. I fell asleep. I think it was those air sickness pills they give. When I woke up, I didn’t really try to find my unit. To fight. I just..I just kind of stayed put.

Lieutenant SPEIRS: What’s your name trooper?

Private BLITHE: I’m Blithe, Sir. Albert Blithe.

Lieutenant SPEIRS: You know why you hid in that ditch Blithe?

Private BLITHE: (whispers) I was scared…

Lieutenant SPEIRS: We’re all scared. You hid in that ditch because you think there’s still hope. But Blithe…the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. Without mercy. Without compassion. Without remorse. All war depends upon it.

-Chapter 6, Pg. 89

Of all the conversations, events, and anecdotes that Military Historian Stephen E. Ambrose describes in his work Band of Brothers, which documents the triumphs and travails of an experimental Parachute Infantry Regiment outfit known as Easy Company, the above-quoted dialogue is one of the most direct statements of the mentality of a paratrooper, and in that way contributes more than any other passage to the prevalent themes of the story: suffering as a means of building character and the hopelessness of warfare. Obviously, these are two themes that, at first glance, appear extremely grim and depressing. Upon more careful observation, however, one should realize that Lieutenant Speirs was not trying to depress or alienate Blithe; indeed no leader would ever wish to intentionally deflate their followers’ spirits; but rather, Speirs was simply trying to harden Blithe and expose him to the reality of war, thus transforming him into a better solider and more efficient “killing machine,” more likely to survive combat . Speirs simply uses the concept of hopelessness as a means of building character to do so. In the beginning of this dialogue, Blithe takes on an apologetic tone: he knows and regrets that he failed his fellow paratroopers on D-Day by falling asleep and avoiding his combat duties. He blames his cowardice on fear, claiming that being scared kept him from searching for his comrades and carrying out the invasion. Lieutenant Speirs, on the other hand, offers an alternative explanation: Speirs claims that it was hope, not fear, which kept Blithe static in his ditch. One may think, “Fear is a much more sensible explanation. After all, how can hope make one hesitate? Aren’t hope and hesitation opposites?” If this is going through your mind (as it was going through mine at first,) then think about it this way: When confronted by threatening circumstances, one hesitates, or avoids the threat, because they believe that avoiding the threat will allow them to live in comfort for another day. Facing a threatening circumstance guarantees discomfort in some shape or form, while avoiding that threat guarantees comfort, life, and stability. This explains why one would not leap off a cliff or provoke a gunman: avoiding these behaviors guarantees comfort and life, while engaging in them puts one at great risk for harm. Thus, possessing hope, and the ensuing belief that there are peaceful, stable, and pain-free alternatives to threatening circumstances, are both necessary corollaries to hesitation. Without hope, one can gain nothing from hesitation, for there is nothing beneficial gained by avoiding a threat. In short, without something to live for, without hope and the possibility of comforting alternative circumstances, threats are meaningless, and hesitation has no value. This is what Speirs meant when he said “You hid in that ditch because you think there is still hope."

Speirs expounds on the theme of hopelessness by stating that in order to function properly as a soldier, with the chutzpah and bravery required for war, every solider must realize that he is “already dead.” By this, Speirs meant that there is no hope in war, no better conditions to strive for, and no life to live outside of enemy lines. Thus, upon receiving a daunting mission, a soldier is reduced to two grim alternatives: to refuse the mission and die in abject solitude and isolation, or to carry out the mission and die proudly next to his comrades. This is the mentality on which soldiers on the front-line thrive; the psyche that compelled the men of E. Company to fight for their country; the reason that hopelessness is seen as a means of building character. All of this is captured by this one dialogue, making it, in my opinion, an essential passage indeed. In the second half of Band of Brothers, Speirs translates his “already dead” philosophy into action when he runs right across a field filled with German Infantry and tanks, dodging bullets as he goes, delivers a message to Item Company, and runs right back. To most men, it is seen as insane, while to Speirs, it is seen as the hallmark of a good soldier.

As one can tell, this passage is not written in skillful prose, nor does it possess any beautiful, descriptive language; the style is simple and curt, with no impressive use of syntax, vocabulary, or literary techniques. It's certainly no "Imaginary Iceberg." This is appropriate, however, since the passage is simply a dialogue between two ordinary citizen soldiers, and not the writing of some intellectual. Thus, I cannot say that the passage “jumped” at me as so “beautiful, descriptive, or graphic,” but I can say that the simplicity of the language, and the straightforwardness with which Speirs delivered his mini-speech, made the passage more alluring than beautiful or descriptive language ever could. The primary reason for this is that the simple style made it clear that the passage was written by laypeople and for laypeople, making the message extremely relatable and easy to understand. The rest of the story, on the other hand, is rife with military jargon and history. If one is not intimately familiar, for example, with the military chain of command or the difference between a mortar and howitzer and a .3cal and a .5cal, then the story can at times be difficult to understand. That is not the case with this passage. Anyone can understand this passage, and more importantly, anyone can relate to the themes of fear, hopelessness, and the desire to simply “fall asleep” and avoid responsibility. Therein lays the appeal of Lieutenant Speirs’ speech.

The strong emotional response it elicits, combined with the contributions it makes to the overarching themes of hopelessness and suffering, together made this dialogue an obvious choice for this “essential passage” assignment. My emotional reaction to the passage as a reader, however, was manifold, as several different emotions and thoughts passed through me at once. My first emotional responses were confusion and disagreement. Before reading Band of Brothers, I believed that soldiers must remain hopeful if they wish to do well in war. I envisioned the mentality of a solider as one of optimism, of hope that if all goes well, then everyone can return home to a life of tranquility. I thought that soldiers must be shrewd, and that they must always consider the family and fellow citizens they have to live for. “If you consider your family, you won’t do anything too risky and you will live to fight another day” was my belief, and that’s really how I thought wars were won. Speirs’ speech therefore contradicted my entire conception of war and of what it means to be a soldier. This confusion and disagreement, however, gradually gave way to awe and sympathy. With this passage, I gained a new respect and admiration for soldiers in our military, the ordinary citizens, like our parents and teachers, who were thrown into a war and forced to endure the very basest conditions of human existence. This passage gave me a new reverence for the leadership abilities of men like Lieutenant Ronald Speirs, who brought solace to men buckling under those conditions. I, in short, fell in love with everything the military represents, and it is because of Band of Brothers and speeches like Speirs’ that I have a stack of war books sitting on my desk waiting to be read.