The Steel Helmet (1951)

Steve Brodie: Lt. Driscoll

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lt. Driscoll : Where's your officer?

  Sergeant Zack : Fertilizing a rice paddy with the rest of the patrol.

• Lt. Driscoll : Well, Sergeant, I told you it was a waste of time.

  Sgt. Zack : If I was right all the time I'd be an officer, Lieutenant.

• Sergeant Zack : Did you hear the Colonel? Hear what he said?

  Lt. Driscoll : Yeah. Yeah I heard what he said.

  Sergeant Zack : Well, what are we waitin' for? Get off the Beach. Get those Krauts. Gotta get off the beach.

• Lt. Driscoll : Sergeant Zack...

  Sergeant Zack : Yeah?

  Lt. Driscoll : I, uh - I'd like to swap helmets with you.

  Sergeant Zack : Oh, yeah? Why?

  Lt. Driscoll : Well, it sounds a little silly, but, uh, I thought maybe if I wore your helmet, it'd, uh, bring me the same kind of luck it's brought you.

  Sergeant Zack : I'd be crossing the Army if I brought you luck to live.

  Lt. Driscoll : Sergeant, I've, uh.. changed my mind about a lot of things in the past hour.

  Sergeant Zack : You'd have to change a lot more than your mind to get my steel pot.

  Lt. Driscoll : You're too dumb to be an officer, so you take it out on us. You're a sorehead, and you're jealous. That's why you hate any officer.

  Sergeant Zack : Look, I'll tell you about an officer. And he wasn't any 90-day Act of Congress like you. He was a colonel, and he didn't *have* to be there. On D-day in Normandy, when you were wearing bars in the States and we were pinned down for three hours by Kraut fire, this colonel - Colonel Taylor - he got up on Easy Red Beach, and he yelled, There are two kinds of men on this beach: those who are dead... and those who are about to die. So let's get off the beach and die inland.

  Sergeant Zack : [pauses]  *That* officer I'd give my steel hat to any day.