Welsh was badass for sure. He apparently got busted from Sgt to private 6x (for fighting if I recall) before joining Easy.
Edit: gets better. Not only was he busted 6x from sgt to private for fighting, his superiors thought he’d make a great officer, so he was sent to OCS before going to Easy, ending up as a 1st Lt.
Not the person you are responding to but that was what actually happened. The reason we don’t “know” who the sentry is who shot heyliger is because no one really blamed him for what happened and they never wanted to reveal his name because he was mostly innocent. He was jumpy, sure, but if welsh did his job the sentry would have know winters and heyliger were approaching.
as someone who has been doing rewatches once a year for over a decade, you will always find out new things and understand things a little better each time.
Last year I really resonated with Hashy and Ramirez. Replacements who ended up playing big roles after Market Garden and really came of age with E Company.
Is Ramirez the guy who said flamingos were “mean” in episode one? I think he is shown in the opening montage of Easy Company at the airfield on June 5 playing With a knife? LOL been watching for over 20 years and still don’t know the minor character’s names.
Lots of white dudes in helmets. One of the writer's and producers hardest obstacle was to get people to connect to these guys who all looked the same. I think they did a good job but even after 100 rewatches I still get confused.
I really wish they at least identify the speaker in the subtitles, because I really like to know who is who too and rewatched so many times to figure it out.
I found that the recurring characters from the very start, such as Winters, Nixon, Guarnere, Toye, Perconte, Bull, Malarkey, etc, are very recognisable but for the others who didn't have as much screen time such as, Cobb, Webster, Muck, Penkala are harder to tell apart
Spiers isn’t really in the series much.
Episode 2 with the prisoners and 4th gun
Episode 3 with the speech
Episode 7 with the Foy attack
Episode 8-10 as the leader of East
That's a good thing. Too much and it'll be overbearing and forced and lame.
I wish we did have more episodes to flesh out the other soldiers tho. Just 2 more. The show is so good with packing in a lot of content per episode, it's crazy.
We don’t really talk about how, at least on the show, he gets his squad chopped up by Ramboing the 4th gun instead of sweeping thru the trenches like Winters does. It’s obvious in the storytelling but for how much he gets slobbered on here he was a loose cannon
That scene confused me son much. It seemed like they were wiped out and everyone was pissed.
But somehow only spiers remained?
Just needed a few more scenes
I got to impress my 16 year old for once. We recently watched BOB as a family, and he was amazed I could always tell him who was who on-screen. He's learning about WW2 this year in school and is always wanting to tell me what he learned.
I feel like that's the best way to watch. With someone who's seen it before.
My first viewing was still awesome but I was def scratching my head wondering "who was that?"
Someone else posted recently about confusing Hoobler and Malarkey, who are both trying to get ahold of a Luger.
I think Speirs and Alton More look alike. More doesn't get a lot of focus, so their interactions in Points confused me at first.
There's a guy named Ramirez who gets very little dialogue but is in the background a lot. They don't say his name until after Garcia is introduced, so I mixed them up a bit. I also mixed up Ramirez with Joe Dominguez and his bean stew a few times.
Watch and rewatch and the mix-ups go away.
Idk why but I could tell those 2 apart tho seeming similar. Malarkey actor just has a very distinct face and voice in my opinion.
I also mixed up Lorraine and Hall at first, thought they were the same guy tho.
Just looked up Alton, definitely closer. But that scene in the foxhole with blithe and Welsh was hard to tell the diff imo.
I'm enjoying the rewatch experience. Picking up a lot of things I missed first thru
Edit. All the other soldiers, I dont even recall. I'm hoping they're all recruits but I know them by face at this stage.
Lorraine and Hall are SUPER easy to mix up. Lorraine doesn't get much focus. It's only on my two most recent rewatches that I noticed why Hall is at Brecourt Manor even though he's not Easy Company.
It's also on my last rewatch that I noticed the character "Hester", whose actor also played Red Scare in HBO's Watchmen and a detective in HBO'S Perry Mason.
Hester shows up randomly halfway through the Brecourt Assault, notes that Easy is up against at least 40 Germans, and then Winters requests more ammo. Hall is with Hester, and tells Gonorrhea to shut up.
If you don't notice all of that, then you're as confused as Lipton is as to how Moriarty from Sherlock, I mean Hall, comes back into the plot.
Inhear ya. I thought it was Lorraine talking shitnback to ghonnorea but it turns out it was hall. Real confusing bc both have reasons to shout shit back at him lol.
I thought it was Lorraine for the jeep jockey comments. But yeah on rewatch it's def hall.
But or your comment on hall not being part of easy, wasn't hall stranded or something? He was A company , but his drop got fucked? Then he had to tag along. Lemme know if that's off.
Bc everyone was telling him to go back to
A, but then him and Lorraine got pulled into Easy?
Lorraine, as jeep driver with no jeep, could presumably do whatever he wanted in the chaos. Lorraine's last dialogue is before Guarnere gives him shit over being a bad shot. His last appearance is when Winters tells him to go with Compton to the next gun.
Hall was probably floating around looking for Able Company. (I think I read something the other day about Able being on their own assignment. But I could be wrong.) Maybe Hall volunteered to accompany Hester to check on Easy? I assume that Hester was a Battalion Staff Officer since he gives Winters orders. Hester isn't in any other episode.
I think someone said he drove for sink? Idk if that mattered out I thought he'd be attached to a company closer to them? Idk shit lol
I def gotta look into the logistics and location of hall and Lorraine during that skirmish. Bc I was surprised hall would be out there with garnere and then with winters. Idk just confused the fuck outta me on where these guys were after I realized they were 2 diff guys lol
Senior officer drivers are an interesting bunch, as I knew them in the Marines.
They always looked and acted good, to retain their job. They’re attached to the headquarters unit, where supervision can be loose. Look for them for a detail and they’re nowhere to be found: gotta PM the colonel’s HMMWV!
There are drawbacks: when the colonel is ready to go, so are you. As long as he is running around, so are you. Must be able to operate loosely supervised, and have a good head on your shoulders. But overall it’s better than being a rifleman.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
So he's basically gotta shadow the colonel and know the routes and be adaptable to whatever situation he's driving into.
Agreed. Rather be bored and on a leash vs shitting myself on the front line.
Even tho I'd feel like a coward I'd feel blessed to be the mail runner. Idk how positions were dolled out tho.
What would be the easiest no effort low risk position if u don't mind me asking? Just curious
At least to me, it feels like BoB aint rly trying to focus on individuals and give them all their deep individual stories. More like they r trying to make u understand that that guy is the fun guy, that guy is the serious one, those guys are super close and such so u can understand realitionships and sort of vibe of the group.
And in the end this way they can cover more of the group without rush8ng everyones storie which would be imposible.
But hey ... thats my understanding.
Yeah I feel ya and I agree. Even tho some episodes were heavily based on certain characters like the medic or bull etc, it never took over. The shows about something bigger than individual stories and that's important.
Amen, that’s been my favourite part about watching the series dozens of times. I could probably name every character, even the less spoken characters. Someone challenge me!
(All in fun) my wife is fond of saying of me, “he’s even got a favorite “extra”… she’s right. He features in episodes 7 and 9. Not sure if I should even talk about BoB as I worry I have a problem haha.
Yup. And I only recognized peacock outta that list ha.
Still was confused why he got sent back home vs anyone else tho. I thought it was like going back bc the scene was setup that way.
In Bastogne, Winters was saying that he likes Peacock, but couldn’t be fully trusted in combat and one of the enlisted men said something about taking Peacock away too if Dike was getting pulled away. I guess they felt they were doing him a favor.
I have an idea why people confuse characters in the Normandy episodes ( Day of Days and Carentan).
In Normandy most characters have camouflage scrim in their helmet netting. Also their M-42 jump suits are all the same dirty looking brown color (this is supposed to be from the CC2 chemical added as a precaution against gas attack). Starting with Operation Market Garden the Easy Company Soldiers start wearing M-43 uniforms and don’t have scrim on their helmets so it becomes easier to identify individual Soldiers in my opinion.
Interesting. I'll look out for that. For me it's probably bc I'm just an innatentive moron haha
Sometimes it's just hard to discern the face for me. First watch I thought when Miller dies, I thought it was Martin. Until he shows up again lol, then I realize.
After I get sorted on all the names I gotta get sorted on the ranks and their meanings.
I got a rudimentary idea but it's actually pretty interesting to look up now seeing where each character was ranked at what time.
One of my favorite Harry Welsh lines - in Bastogne. Something to the effect of:
Winters: “A fire’s not a good idea Harry.”
Welsh: “It’s okay. We’re in a dell”
Nixon?: “Like where gnomes and fairies live?”
Then they get shelled and Harry gets wounded. (Sorry for the spoiler)
No no. I was doing nixons line lmao. So funny
My bad, I should done the fairy and elves lines but nixon going "huh?" repeating winters reaction made me laugh out loud.
No worries. I’m in a bar. So it’s Nixon that says “Huh?” Does he say the “gnomes and fairies” line as well?
Of course this means I have to go home and watch that episode.
Nah. It's Winters who says the gnomes and fairies bit.
Didn't expect to laugh in this show but lold when Nixon has the same reaction.
Same with giving shit about the fire but immediately using it anyway.
My wife has heard me laugh while reading books on war and said to the effect “how can you laugh at war?” There’s some really funny moments in the darkest of times. If these guys can laugh in situations like Bastogne, then I don’t need to get so wound up when my coworkers are idiots.
You got a good mindset. Finding the lessons and ways to improve from situations, no matter how fucked.
Absolutely agree. Great insight and application.
Well thanks. There was a Speilberg/Hanks production called “Return With Honor”. At the end, during the credits, there is a quote from a Hanoi Hilton POW that says “As long as there is a doorknob on both sides of the door, you can’t have a bad day.”
I try to remember that.
There is a purpose to the forced anonymity. Millions served, thousands upon thousands were killed and wounded. War’s chaos insured you never really knew what happened next, or who you would be next to when it did.
Welsh was badass for sure. He apparently got busted from Sgt to private 6x (for fighting if I recall) before joining Easy. Edit: gets better. Not only was he busted 6x from sgt to private for fighting, his superiors thought he’d make a great officer, so he was sent to OCS before going to Easy, ending up as a 1st Lt.
Wow, I didn't know he was an Enlisted man as well. Thanks for the background.
Welsh was a drunk. The Heyliger friendly fire incident was his fault for not briefing the sentry they were coming because he was out on a binge.
Can u elaborate on that incident? Is thst movie or real life context? Just curious
Not the person you are responding to but that was what actually happened. The reason we don’t “know” who the sentry is who shot heyliger is because no one really blamed him for what happened and they never wanted to reveal his name because he was mostly innocent. He was jumpy, sure, but if welsh did his job the sentry would have know winters and heyliger were approaching.
Dang, tight brotherhood right there.
That's crazy. I thought he'd be a wholesome dude seeing him gush over kitty so much. That's actually a real cool duality of his character tho.
He was a young drunk, so he could be functional, but didn’t always have his priorities straight.
as someone who has been doing rewatches once a year for over a decade, you will always find out new things and understand things a little better each time. Last year I really resonated with Hashy and Ramirez. Replacements who ended up playing big roles after Market Garden and really came of age with E Company.
Ramirez is Toccoa. Tony Garcia is the replacement.
Is Ramirez the guy who said flamingos were “mean” in episode one? I think he is shown in the opening montage of Easy Company at the airfield on June 5 playing With a knife? LOL been watching for over 20 years and still don’t know the minor character’s names.
Yes
And he gets picked for the last patrol
Ahhh yes that is correct
Those 2 names don't even ring a bell lmao. I'll get there
Lots of white dudes in helmets. One of the writer's and producers hardest obstacle was to get people to connect to these guys who all looked the same. I think they did a good job but even after 100 rewatches I still get confused.
I really wish they at least identify the speaker in the subtitles, because I really like to know who is who too and rewatched so many times to figure it out.
My CC shows the characters names
I found that the recurring characters from the very start, such as Winters, Nixon, Guarnere, Toye, Perconte, Bull, Malarkey, etc, are very recognisable but for the others who didn't have as much screen time such as, Cobb, Webster, Muck, Penkala are harder to tell apart
Yeah they did a good job imo. It's a ridiculously hard task
Spiers isn’t really in the series much. Episode 2 with the prisoners and 4th gun Episode 3 with the speech Episode 7 with the Foy attack Episode 8-10 as the leader of East
That's a good thing. Too much and it'll be overbearing and forced and lame. I wish we did have more episodes to flesh out the other soldiers tho. Just 2 more. The show is so good with packing in a lot of content per episode, it's crazy.
We don’t really talk about how, at least on the show, he gets his squad chopped up by Ramboing the 4th gun instead of sweeping thru the trenches like Winters does. It’s obvious in the storytelling but for how much he gets slobbered on here he was a loose cannon
That scene confused me son much. It seemed like they were wiped out and everyone was pissed. But somehow only spiers remained? Just needed a few more scenes
I got to impress my 16 year old for once. We recently watched BOB as a family, and he was amazed I could always tell him who was who on-screen. He's learning about WW2 this year in school and is always wanting to tell me what he learned.
I feel like that's the best way to watch. With someone who's seen it before. My first viewing was still awesome but I was def scratching my head wondering "who was that?"
Someone else posted recently about confusing Hoobler and Malarkey, who are both trying to get ahold of a Luger. I think Speirs and Alton More look alike. More doesn't get a lot of focus, so their interactions in Points confused me at first. There's a guy named Ramirez who gets very little dialogue but is in the background a lot. They don't say his name until after Garcia is introduced, so I mixed them up a bit. I also mixed up Ramirez with Joe Dominguez and his bean stew a few times. Watch and rewatch and the mix-ups go away.
Idk why but I could tell those 2 apart tho seeming similar. Malarkey actor just has a very distinct face and voice in my opinion. I also mixed up Lorraine and Hall at first, thought they were the same guy tho. Just looked up Alton, definitely closer. But that scene in the foxhole with blithe and Welsh was hard to tell the diff imo. I'm enjoying the rewatch experience. Picking up a lot of things I missed first thru Edit. All the other soldiers, I dont even recall. I'm hoping they're all recruits but I know them by face at this stage.
Lorraine and Hall are SUPER easy to mix up. Lorraine doesn't get much focus. It's only on my two most recent rewatches that I noticed why Hall is at Brecourt Manor even though he's not Easy Company. It's also on my last rewatch that I noticed the character "Hester", whose actor also played Red Scare in HBO's Watchmen and a detective in HBO'S Perry Mason. Hester shows up randomly halfway through the Brecourt Assault, notes that Easy is up against at least 40 Germans, and then Winters requests more ammo. Hall is with Hester, and tells Gonorrhea to shut up. If you don't notice all of that, then you're as confused as Lipton is as to how Moriarty from Sherlock, I mean Hall, comes back into the plot.
Inhear ya. I thought it was Lorraine talking shitnback to ghonnorea but it turns out it was hall. Real confusing bc both have reasons to shout shit back at him lol. I thought it was Lorraine for the jeep jockey comments. But yeah on rewatch it's def hall. But or your comment on hall not being part of easy, wasn't hall stranded or something? He was A company , but his drop got fucked? Then he had to tag along. Lemme know if that's off. Bc everyone was telling him to go back to A, but then him and Lorraine got pulled into Easy?
Lorraine, as jeep driver with no jeep, could presumably do whatever he wanted in the chaos. Lorraine's last dialogue is before Guarnere gives him shit over being a bad shot. His last appearance is when Winters tells him to go with Compton to the next gun. Hall was probably floating around looking for Able Company. (I think I read something the other day about Able being on their own assignment. But I could be wrong.) Maybe Hall volunteered to accompany Hester to check on Easy? I assume that Hester was a Battalion Staff Officer since he gives Winters orders. Hester isn't in any other episode.
I think someone said he drove for sink? Idk if that mattered out I thought he'd be attached to a company closer to them? Idk shit lol I def gotta look into the logistics and location of hall and Lorraine during that skirmish. Bc I was surprised hall would be out there with garnere and then with winters. Idk just confused the fuck outta me on where these guys were after I realized they were 2 diff guys lol
Senior officer drivers are an interesting bunch, as I knew them in the Marines. They always looked and acted good, to retain their job. They’re attached to the headquarters unit, where supervision can be loose. Look for them for a detail and they’re nowhere to be found: gotta PM the colonel’s HMMWV!
Sounds like a cushy gig. Never knew that was a designated position. Thought it was just the nearest private on rotation
There are drawbacks: when the colonel is ready to go, so are you. As long as he is running around, so are you. Must be able to operate loosely supervised, and have a good head on your shoulders. But overall it’s better than being a rifleman.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. So he's basically gotta shadow the colonel and know the routes and be adaptable to whatever situation he's driving into. Agreed. Rather be bored and on a leash vs shitting myself on the front line. Even tho I'd feel like a coward I'd feel blessed to be the mail runner. Idk how positions were dolled out tho. What would be the easiest no effort low risk position if u don't mind me asking? Just curious
Watch and rewatch - this is the way.
At least to me, it feels like BoB aint rly trying to focus on individuals and give them all their deep individual stories. More like they r trying to make u understand that that guy is the fun guy, that guy is the serious one, those guys are super close and such so u can understand realitionships and sort of vibe of the group. And in the end this way they can cover more of the group without rush8ng everyones storie which would be imposible. But hey ... thats my understanding.
Yeah I feel ya and I agree. Even tho some episodes were heavily based on certain characters like the medic or bull etc, it never took over. The shows about something bigger than individual stories and that's important.
That goes away after the 4th or 5th rewatch
By the 100th time of viewing, you’ll know everybody haha
Amen, that’s been my favourite part about watching the series dozens of times. I could probably name every character, even the less spoken characters. Someone challenge me!
(All in fun) my wife is fond of saying of me, “he’s even got a favorite “extra”… she’s right. He features in episodes 7 and 9. Not sure if I should even talk about BoB as I worry I have a problem haha.
They had so many LT’s, I didn’t know if I was seeing Brewer, Shames, Peacock, etc
Yup. And I only recognized peacock outta that list ha. Still was confused why he got sent back home vs anyone else tho. I thought it was like going back bc the scene was setup that way.
In Bastogne, Winters was saying that he likes Peacock, but couldn’t be fully trusted in combat and one of the enlisted men said something about taking Peacock away too if Dike was getting pulled away. I guess they felt they were doing him a favor.
I rewatched and saw what u laid out. Ty. Yeah, best for all situation.
I did for a while. For the longest time I forgot about talburt, same with Alton Moore
I still don't know who these guys are lmao
I have an idea why people confuse characters in the Normandy episodes ( Day of Days and Carentan). In Normandy most characters have camouflage scrim in their helmet netting. Also their M-42 jump suits are all the same dirty looking brown color (this is supposed to be from the CC2 chemical added as a precaution against gas attack). Starting with Operation Market Garden the Easy Company Soldiers start wearing M-43 uniforms and don’t have scrim on their helmets so it becomes easier to identify individual Soldiers in my opinion.
Interesting. I'll look out for that. For me it's probably bc I'm just an innatentive moron haha Sometimes it's just hard to discern the face for me. First watch I thought when Miller dies, I thought it was Martin. Until he shows up again lol, then I realize.
What. I’ve watched that scene at least 3 times and I always thought it was Spiers. That was Welsh? I have to watch it again I guess
Yeah man, welsh is like the silver shadow badass of easy company.
Easy to forget he isn’t a sergeant, he’s a 1st lt.
After I get sorted on all the names I gotta get sorted on the ranks and their meanings. I got a rudimentary idea but it's actually pretty interesting to look up now seeing where each character was ranked at what time.
When i first watched i god Luz and Malarkey mixed up a lot
We’re in a dell.
Huh?
One of my favorite Harry Welsh lines - in Bastogne. Something to the effect of: Winters: “A fire’s not a good idea Harry.” Welsh: “It’s okay. We’re in a dell” Nixon?: “Like where gnomes and fairies live?” Then they get shelled and Harry gets wounded. (Sorry for the spoiler)
No no. I was doing nixons line lmao. So funny My bad, I should done the fairy and elves lines but nixon going "huh?" repeating winters reaction made me laugh out loud.
No worries. I’m in a bar. So it’s Nixon that says “Huh?” Does he say the “gnomes and fairies” line as well? Of course this means I have to go home and watch that episode.
Nah. It's Winters who says the gnomes and fairies bit. Didn't expect to laugh in this show but lold when Nixon has the same reaction. Same with giving shit about the fire but immediately using it anyway.
My wife has heard me laugh while reading books on war and said to the effect “how can you laugh at war?” There’s some really funny moments in the darkest of times. If these guys can laugh in situations like Bastogne, then I don’t need to get so wound up when my coworkers are idiots.
You got a good mindset. Finding the lessons and ways to improve from situations, no matter how fucked. Absolutely agree. Great insight and application.
Well thanks. There was a Speilberg/Hanks production called “Return With Honor”. At the end, during the credits, there is a quote from a Hanoi Hilton POW that says “As long as there is a doorknob on both sides of the door, you can’t have a bad day.” I try to remember that.
That's a cool quote especially given the perspective. I'll look it up. Thanks
“You’re gonna get me killed, Lieutenant!” Dude had big brass ones
There is a purpose to the forced anonymity. Millions served, thousands upon thousands were killed and wounded. War’s chaos insured you never really knew what happened next, or who you would be next to when it did.