The real history that inspired Saving Private Ryan

[Eldorado]

“Eight guys for one man during D-Day? Never would’ve happened.”

Indeed, the idea of eight men being potentially squandered during the largest seaborne invasion in history is probably a flight of fancy by Spielberg and screenwriter Robert Rodat. Nevertheless, there is a poignant, mostly heartbreaking truth which informs Saving Private Ryan’s fiction.

The context can be absurd at times, with Tom Hanks’ Capt. Miller leading a group of U.S. soldiers behind enemy lines to find one paratrooper, Pvt. Ryan (Matt Damon), after his three older brothers died in battles around Europe. However, the idea of the U.S. military wanting to prevent an entire family from being wiped out?

That cuts to the heart of War Department policy near the end of the Second World War. Here are a few of the true stories which inspired Saving Private Ryan’s Hollywood narrative.

Full article at Den of Geek: Link

[+and-then]

I seem to recall that later, a destroyer was named the U.S.S. The Sullivan's.

https://buffalonavalpark.org/exhibits/uss-the-sullivans/

The only Naval vessel named for more than ONE person's honor.