Band of Brothers

About a month or so ago, I borrowed the mini-series Band of Brothers from a co-worker. I ripped through the 10 hours of DVDs in a weekend - it was that good. The mini-series tells the story of Easy Company - a paratrooper division that sees its first action in WWII on D-Day but then endures the challenges of war all the way through the fall of the Nazi regime in Germany. Whenver I see movies like this, I wonder how I would have reacted in those types of situations in my late teens or early twenties - seeing friends die, facing your own likely death, killing others, integrating newcomers into the company, coming back from injuries, holding the line in the dead of winter, seeing a concentration camp, etc. I want to believe I would have risen to the challenge but I'm not so sure. I think I would have been fine laying down my own life but it would have torn me apart to see others in my company (especially close friends of mine) die. I doubt I could have taken that for long.