Band of Brothers

“They knew they were going into great danger. They knew they would be doing more than their part. They resented having to sacrifice years of their youth to a war they never made…[b]ut having been caught up in the war, they decided to be as positive as possible in their Army careers.” 

This quote is Ambrose’s discussion of the soldiers’ initial motivation for joining the Army, a mixture of a sense of duty and a sense of pride in self.

“Whatever their legitimate complaints about how life had treated them, they had not soured on it or on their country...[t]hey came out of the Depression with many other positive features. They were self-reliant, accustomed to hard work and to taking orders. Through sports or hunting or both, they had gained a sense of self-worth and self-confidence.” 

While the Germans were primarily professional soldiers, many of the men in Easy Company were civilians before the war. In this quote, Ambrose connects their lives as civilians before the war to their lives as soldiers during the war, underscoring his argument that certain aspects of American culture allowed a citizen civilian army to defeat Germany.

“The men were told that Currahee was an Indian word that meant ‘We stand alone,’ which was the way these paratroopers expected to fight. It became the battle cry of the 506th.”

The motto of the paratroopers connects them to the original site of their training, Camp Toccoa, located near CurraheeMountain. In addition, it highlights the elite status of the paratroopers in the U.S. Army. At the end of training, Colonel Sink modifiedthe motto by adding the word “together” to the end of it, thus emphasizing the importance of teamwork to that status and their survival (33).