Joel Stephenson
Essay 2: Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose World War II would become known as a war that modified the United States of America for the better of the country and its inhabitants alike. The United States did not enter the war until 1942, three years after the conflict had already caused uproar in Europe, but this late entry did not take away from the success story that America would live to tell. America and her Allies trumped the Axis powers through their courageous and persistent attacks on the beaches of Normandy and all the way through Europe until reaching Berlin. The United States not only fought a front against the Germans, but they also had to deal with the likes of the Japanese in the Pacific theatre. The destruction of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese would become the initial catalyst to the final subduing of Japan with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By taking this bold and prominent stance by being the first country to drop an atomic bomb on an enemy of war, America would become the number one power in the world. Stephen Ambrose provides the audience with a new perspective of World War II in the eyes of the Americans. He writes in the setting of firsthand accounts from veterans whom were actually in the war and fought in combat, specifically with the accounts of men from Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne. The men of Easy Company all had similarities, but the main similarity being that they were all American. This meant that they did not necessarily identify as one race or culture, but as the mutts who had become known as the American soldiers. The complexity and differential in social upbringings of all the men contributed to the bonds they shared with one another, but more importantly, the relationships the men built among themselves to become brothers of different backgrounds was a key component for their cooperation and success in the war. No one man of the Easy Company was exactly alike from the next. The company actually had notoriety for being like a melting pot full of men from all over the country. Being that the enlistment for this group did take place in 1942, no African Americans were eligible to sign up for service in Easy Company due to the segregation within the Army.1 The 1942 America was indeed not a tolerant America yet, though we were fighting for liberation of those whom were being singled out and persecuted for their ethnic backgrounds, leaving the United States to look almost hypocritical of its own motives because of the racial issues against African Americans in the States at this time. The Civil Rights Movement would not begin for almost another twenty years, leaving black Americans with the ability to join the military, but still with segregation. This is not a claim to condone the segregation among African Americans in the Army, but given the circumstances of the times that the United States was experiencing, it was better to keep segregation between whites and blacks in the Army for the safety of African Americans. It can also be argued that had blacks been allowed to join Easy Company, the bond of the men would not have been nearly the same that it turned out to be. Much discrimination between races would have likely been prevalent of interracial regiments at this time leading to an overall dissatisfaction among men as well as a lack of stability and trust among the soldiers.
The marital statuses of men at time of enlistment for Easy was mostly that they were all single and ready mingle, with the exception of only three out of 140 original men and seven officers.2 The number of unmarried men greatly benefitted the American military in the midst of World War II with one main outcome, man power. Over the course of the war from 1939 until 1945, the United States had utilized the personnel of over 12,000,000 American citizens for the war effort with in the military. This is a substantial use of American citizens for the war effort when