That wasn't what my wife's father said. My wife's dad said repeatedly... "Those poor sons of bitches up in those airplanes get shot down they either get killed or captured. Those poor sons of bitches floating around in those ships either get drowned or eaten by sharks. Hell my tank got hit, I jumped out and ran like hell. I had the best damned job in the whole army... Hell, I had the best damned job in the whole war!"
There was dialog similar to that in the movie. Which was one of the reasons my wife was so shaken by the movie. My wife's dad was a recon tanker in the 3rd Armored Division. He lost 13 tanks during the war, some of them due to mechanical failure, but some were hit by the enemy and some of his buddies in the tanks he was in were killed. His left hand was all messed up because he opened the hatch and a German bayonet went through it before he was able to shoot the guy with his 45.
His name was Paul Swinford; he was a farm boy from Coles County Illinois. When he joined the army in 1938. When he got off the bus... they said, "Lookie here we got ourselves a farm boy who is so fresh that he still has manure on his shoes." He said that he did the worst possible thing and looked over his shoes. He joked that he could not figure out how they knew he was a farm boy because he was wearing his best pair of overalls with a tie.
I downloaded the PDF file of “Spearhead . . .” Spent too much time reading it last night.
Thanks for all your info - very interesting reading.