- [last lines]
- Holley: [as they begin marching from the battlefield, passing their replacements as they enter] Hey, Kinnie - what ever happened to Jody?
- Sgt. Kinnie: All right, come on! Come on! What do you want these guys to think, you're a bunch of WACs? Alright, alright pick it up now. Hut, two, three. Hut, two, three, four. Hut, two, three, four. You had a good home but you left...
- I Company: You're right!
- Sgt. Kinnie: You had a good home but you left...
- I Company: You're right!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Jody was there when you left...
- I Company: You're right!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Your Baby was there when you left...
- I Company: You're right!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
- I Company: One, two
- Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
- I Company: Three, four.
- Sgt. Kinnie: Cadence Count
- I Company: One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Your baby was lonely - as lonely as could be...
- I Company: 'Til Jody provided company!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Ain't it great to have a pal...
- I Company: Who works so hard to keep up morale!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
- I Company: One, two
- Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
- I Company: Three, four.
- Sgt. Kinnie: Cadence Count
- I Company: One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four!
- Sgt. Kinnie: You ain't got nothing to worry about...
- I Company: He'll keep her happy till I get out!
- Sgt. Kinnie: But you won't get home 'til the end of the war...
- I Company: In nineteen hundred and seventy-four!
- Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
- I Company: One, two.
- Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
- I Company: Three, four...
- The Chaplain: [at an interfaith service for the soldiers] Now it's nearly Christmas... and here we are in beautiful Bastogne enjoying the winter sports. And the $64 question is: "Was this trip necessary?" I'll try to answer that. But my sermons, like everything else in the army... depend on the situation and the terrain. So I assure you this is going to be a quickie. Was this trip necessary? Let's look at the facts. Nobody wanted this war but the Nazis. A great many people tried to deal with them, and a lot of them are dead. Millions have died... for no other reason except that the Nazis wanted them dead. So, in the final showdown, there was nothing left to do except fight. There's a great lesson in this. Those of us who've learned it the hard way aren't going to forget it. We must never again let any force dedicated to a super-race... or a super-idea, or super-anything... become strong enough to impose itself upon a free world. We must be smart enough and tough enough in the beginning... to put out the fire before it starts spreading. My answer to the sixty-four dollar question is yes, this trip was necessary. As the years go by, a lot of people are going to forget. But you won't. And don't ever let anybody tell you you were a sucker to fight in the war against fascism. And now, Jerry permitting, let us pray. Almighty God...
- [artillery drowns him out]
- The Chaplain: The organist is hitting those bass notes a little too loud for me to be heard. So let each of us pray in his own way, to his own God.
- Hansan: This is an M-1, semi-automatic, high velocity...
- Soldier: Look, you're not selling it to me, you're showing me how to fire it.
- Holley: That the new platoon leader?
- Pvt. Johnny Rodriguez: Yeah, fresh off the boat.
- Pvt. Ernest J. "Pop" Stazak: I understand your problems, men. I was once an enlisted man, myself.
- Holley: For six months, maybe. Then seventeen weeks at OCS and he's an officer and gentleman by special act of Congress.
- Pvt. Jim Layton: I thought Holley was running away. That's why I ran after him.
- Pvt. Donald Jarvess: How do you know what Holley was thinking? How do you know if he was thinking at all? Things just happen, then afterwards you try to figure out why you acted the way you did.
- Pvt. Jim Layton: I know why I ran. I was scared to death.
- Pvt. Donald Jarvess: You just joined the biggest club in the army. Everybody belongs.
- German Lieutenant: The major thinks General McAuliffle must have misunderstood. We have appealed to the well-known American humanity to save the people of Bastogne from further suffering. We have given you two hours to consider before raining destruction upon you. We do not understand General McAuliffe's answer.
- American Colonel: I'd be glad to repeat it. The answer is "nuts".
- German Lieutenant: [discusses with German major] Is that a negative or an affirmative reply?
- American Colonel: Nuts is strictly negative.
- German Lieutenant: [discusses in German with German major] We will kill many Americans.
- American Colonel: [studies them contemptuously before replying] On your way, bud.
- Pvt. Garby: What time is it, Hanson?
- Pvt. Hanson: 11:30.
- Pvt. Garby: What? It can't be that late. We left at two o'clock.
- Pvt. Hanson: 11:30 AM, Garby. Central Standard Time. Pretty near lunchtime in Springfield.
- Pvt. Garby: You mean you never changed your watch?
- Pvt. Hanson: What's the use of changing your watch?
- Pvt. Garby: What's the use? You're here, you're not in Springfield, Illinois.
- Pvt. Hanson: I hear you...
- Holley: What's going on?
- Sgt. Kinnie: Me and General McAulliffe decided to move I Company up on the line. That is if you agree.
- Pvt. Donald Jarvess: Only one thing gets me. When you work on a newspaper, I'd get those wire releases and know I was the first person in town who had the news, all the news. I guarantee you my wife knows what's going on in Bastogne. All I know is what's going on in the 2nd squad of the 3rd platoon of I company.
- Pvt. Jim Layton: The dreams are getting better all the time. I was back home in Baltimore loading up on hard-shelled crabs and beer.
- Holley: That dream's against regulations, soldier. You know what our boys overseas always dream about.
- Pvt. Jim Layton: Mom's blueberry pie?
- Holley: Why, certainly. That's what we're fighting for. Boy, when I get home, just give me a hot dog and a slice of that pie. Am I gonna kick when I don't get my job back? No siree.
- [a nurse gives Hanson two shots of cognac for anesthetic]
- Pvt. Ernest J. "Pop" Stazak: If she pours him one more, I'm going out and getting myself shot.
- Lt. Teiss: You sure they were enemy tanks?
- Pvt. Donald Jarvess: We saw them, Lieutenant.
- Lt. Teiss: You think we got enough anti-tank grenades to do any good?
- Sgt. Kinnie: We ain't got any. Mind if I make a suggestion, Lieutenant?
- Lt. Teiss: What?
- Sgt. Kinnie: Well, sir, our usual defense against tanks is to call for artillery, and then to run like a jackrabbit.
- Lt. Teiss: We got orders to hold these positions.
- Sgt. Kinnie: Well, sir, let's call for artillery and keep our heads down, then.
- Lt. Teiss: We could send out some bazooka men... if we had any bazookas.
- 'Kipp' Kippton: The way I heard it, it's if you got a Kraut pistol on you when you're captured, they blow your brains out with it. Don't fall for them rumors, Layton.
- [sounding desperate]
- 'Kipp' Kippton: Anybody want a Luger? It's worth a hundred bucks in Paris.
- 'Pop' Stazak: Thanks a lot. It's a violation of the Sullivan Act for a civilian to carry firearms.
- [while being bombarded by German artillery during a driving blizzard]
- Holley: We've had good deals before, but this is the best one yet. This is great. I don't ever wanna go back. I found a home in the army.
- [Holley returns to the squad from the hospital]
- Pvt. "Kip" Kippton: Rough in the ETO. A little scratch on the leg and a month later he comes back in time for a three-day pass to Paris.
- Sgt. Walowicz: I want three volunteers to go out on a patrol, you, you, and you. You're in charge, Holley.
- Holley: Why am I always volunteering for patrols? I'm just a cowboy.
- [Staniferd is too sick to stay in combat]
- Pvt. Staniferd: Hey Kinnie, how about showing me the way to the aid station? I'm freezing.
- Sgt. Walowicz: Feeling any better?
- Pvt. Staniferd: Worse, much worse. I've never felt so sick in my life. Maybe, maybe I've even got pneumonia. (He walks away laughing)
- Sgt. Walowicz: He's really bad.
- Pvt. Bettis: Yeah, he's a cinch to go back to the field hospital, maybe even to Paris.
- Holley: I don't know. With that penicillin, he's liable to be back in a day.
- Pvt. Bettis: Yeah, a good, clean flesh wound is better. Then they gotta send you back.
- Holley: Yeah, they really shoulda sent out a bigger patrol.
- PFC. Johnny Rodriguez: Do you want to goof off?
- Holley: Who said anything about goofing off?
- PFC. Johnny Rodriguez: Nobody. I'm just saying, the best way is to tell them you heard voices talking in German.
- PFC. Donald Jarvess: Let's say we heard voices talking in Japanese and let G-2 figure that out.
- [Rodriguez is wounded and left under an American artillery barrage]
- Pvt. Donald Jarvess: That's great. Artillery, can't miss. They've got Rodriguez to use as an aiming stake.
- Sgt. Kinnie: Tell Walowicz to send out for Rodriguez as soon as the barrage lifts.
- Holley: With what, a sponge?
- Mess Sergeant: [Bastogne is about to be overrun and everyone is being rallied to defend the town, he runs into motor pool] Fall out and draw rifles and ammo right now!
- motor pool PFC: [shuts down motor he's working on] Chow?
- Mess Sergeant: You ain't even warm! Follow me all of you, on the double!
- Pvt. Donald Jarvess: Careful study of the most scientific instruments and maps leads me to believe that German bombers are over Bastonge, fog or no fog.
- Holley: [sarcastically] Kinda rough on rear echelon tonight.
- 'Kipp' Kippton: [sarcastically] Yeah, I've been thinking, the mess sergeant, the supply sergeant, the pill roller who gives us those shots with the square needle. I'm bleedin' for them.
- [clicks his teeth]
- Pvt. Jim Layton: [reading from newspaper] "Strategic Withdrawal In Bulge."
- [to others]
- Pvt. Jim Layton: What's a bulge?
- Holley: Search me.