There’s a pretty good reason why comm personnel, be they Signalmen, radio operators, or basically anyone responsible for battlefield communications, may not be a fan of watching war movies. It may lead one to wonder: do comms guys hate Hollywood or does Hollywood hate comms guys?
See if you can spot it.
1. Saving Private Ryan
Director Steven Spielberg’s 1998 war epic “Saving Private Ryan” is the story of a World War II unit detailed to find one soldier whose brothers were killed in combat. Although a work of fiction, the story is loosely based on a real mission. But that doesn’t really make the comms guy feel better, because he never made it off the beach in the movie’s iconic D-Day recreation. There’s a reason it’s not called “Saving Private Comms Guy.”
2. We Were Soldiers
The 2002 film “We Were Soldiers” stars Mel Gibson as the legendary Lt. Col. Hal Moore, who led his less than 1,000 men into combat against nearly 3,000 North Vietnamese at LZ X-Ray during the Battle of Ia Drang in November 1965. The movie, based on Moore’s memoir of the battle, depicts five days of combat as the newly created airmobile unit was put to the test in some of the most brutal fighting of the Vietnam War. Less than half the American force emerged from the battle unscathed – and the comms guy above wasn’t one of them.
3. Hacksaw Ridge
“Hacksaw Ridge” is the dramaticized, heroic epic of a real-life soldier who refused to carry a weapon in combat. Cpl. Desmond Doss (played by Andrew Garfield) joined the Army during World War II, despite having a deferment for working at a shipyard. There was just one hitch: he was a conscientious objector and refused to fight. He would, however, serve as a medic to save lives. In fact, he would receive the Medal of Honor for his courage under fire and for the lives he saved. But not even Desmond Doss could save that comms guy.
4. Enemy At The Gates
It must have been challenging to be a German comms guy during the World War II Battle of Stalingrad. If the 2001 movie “Enemy at the Gates” is to be believed, the city was just chock-full of Soviet snipers, including one of the real-world greats: Vasily Zaitsev (Jude Law). It would be doubly difficult to be a German comms guy if you were as stupid as the one seen above.
5. Forrest Gump
In “Forrest Gump,” Pvt. Gump’s platoon gets ambushed as they patrol through a particularly dense part of a South Vietnamese jungle. After the shooting stops, Forrest goes in looking for his pal Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), but pulls out the survivors of the ambush first. This radioman was not among those survivors.
6. Even Tropic Thunder
Dammit. Why do movies hate comm guys so much?
