26. The Real Private Ryan
The only consolation that the Niland brothers’ parents received amidst their grief was a letter from their son Frederick, sent before he had learned the fates of his siblings, in which he wrote: “Dad’s Spanish-American war stories are going to have to take a backseat when I get home“. Orders were quickly dispatched from the War Department to Normandy, to find Frederick, and return him to the US and his grief-stricken mom and dad as soon as possible. The task fell to Father Francis Sampson, chaplain of 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Father Sampson managed to track Fritz down – albeit in a less dramatic fashion than in the fictional Saving Private Ryan. By then, he had learned on his own from a visit to the 82nd Airborne that he had lost his brother Robert, and his grief was amplified when the chaplain delivered the heartbreaking news about his two other brothers. Father Sampson then began the paperwork necessary to get Fritz out of the European Theater of Operations, and back to the US. He did that, but as seen below, there was to be yet another twist to the story.