Don was shocked to see that the captain played by Tom Hanks in "Private Ryan" wore his captain's bars on his helmet at D-Day.
At Okinawa, says Dencker, "We stripped our insignia, including the red crosses on medics. Captains and medics just made for more tempting targets. It was a war without mercy. It was kill or be killed--no prisoners," Dencker, now 80, recalls to news-week. "Our chaplain carried an M-1 rifle, and he used it."