Kelly Lastenpole

Kelly Lastenpole is a soldier in Ben Givens’s company and one of the two men assigned to carry ammunition for Ben’s Browning automatic rifle. His brief appearance during the assault on Della Torraccia moves from visible reluctance to action alongside Ben, then ends in his death under fire. The sequence gives Lastenpole little personal history, but makes his changing position within the battle consequential: the weapon depends on its ammunition bearers, and the men who carry that support into the assault are exposed to the same danger as the rifleman.

Identity and Military Role

Lastenpole is assigned to Ben’s rifle platoon after Ben is transferred to N Company. Ben carries the Browning automatic rifle, while Lastenpole and Bill Stackhouse are designated to haul the extra clips. The arrangement makes their roles materially interdependent: Ben’s weapon has limited usefulness without the ammunition the two men bring. In training, Ben struggles under the combined weight of the BAR, field pack, and extra clips; the assignment is therefore not an incidental detail but a demanding part of the platoon’s equipment and movement.

The narrative later places Lastenpole with Ben and Stackhouse as the company prepares to assault the German line on Della Torraccia. Their immediate task is shaped by the planned frontal attack and the expectation that BAR men will provide heavy fire. The orders specifically stress that ammunition bearers must remain close to the guns. Lastenpole’s role is thus both practical and exposed: he is not simply present in the company but assigned to keep a central weapon supplied as the men advance.

Reluctance Before the Assault

As evening falls before the attack, Ben rests against a tree and watches the light fade. Lastenpole sits beside him, tilts back his helmet, and smokes with a hand cupped around his cigarette. The usual dark humor has left his expression. He tells Ben that the situation is unacceptable, asks whether Ben has seen Stackhouse, and then says he will not put himself out there. The exchange records his resistance directly, without supplying a broader account of his history or beliefs.

The reluctance becomes physical at dawn, after the men have taken over foxhole positions from soldiers of the 85th. As mortars pass overhead toward the German positions and the order comes to advance, Lastenpole vomits in the hole. The moment marks the pressure of the impending assault through an involuntary bodily response rather than an explanation of what he feels. It also places him at the threshold between the relative shelter of the foxhole and the exposed slope ahead.

Following Ben Into the Attack

Ben climbs out, takes up his BAR, and begins moving uphill. Lastenpole initially remains behind, but when Ben calls that he needs the extra clips, Lastenpole gathers himself and runs after him. The change is specific: the narrative does not say that his earlier reluctance disappears, only that he responds to Ben’s call and resumes the duty on which the weapon’s continued use depends. In the confusion of the advance, that practical bond between rifleman and ammunition bearer becomes an immediate reason to move.

The men encounter intense fire as they climb. After the company is reorganized for another assault, Ben takes a direct route up the ridge and finds Lastenpole and Stackhouse stopped by trip wires. They pass through the obstacle under fire and descend into a stand of beeches, where they lie on the ground, breathing hard and struggling out of their packs. The scene briefly gathers the three soldiers together again after the scattered movement of the attack. Stackhouse drinks from his canteen; Lastenpole asks where everyone is and what is happening. His questions register the disorientation of a battle in which men have become separated and the larger situation is difficult to read.

Death and Narrative Significance

Lastenpole then moves on his elbows between the trees, apparently trying to survey their position. He is shot and falls. He dies quickly, while Ben and Stackhouse remain close by. The account does not present his death as a completed act of heroism or as a resolution to his earlier hesitation. Instead, it follows an ordinary tactical movement—trying to see where they are—with an abrupt and fatal consequence.

His death also changes the immediate choices facing the survivors. Ben takes cover and considers shooting three German soldiers in response to Lastenpole’s death; Stackhouse strongly advises against it, and the Germans are allowed to move toward their rear. Lastenpole is therefore not only a casualty of the assault but the loss that prompts Ben to contemplate retaliation. Stackhouse’s intervention prevents that impulse from becoming another killing, placing Lastenpole’s death at the center of a moment when grief and violence nearly reinforce each other.

The contrast between Lastenpole’s earlier refusal and his eventual advance is important precisely because the narrative does not turn it into a simple transformation. He hesitates, suffers an acute physical reaction, and then follows when Ben calls for the ammunition. His function in the episode is at once personal and structural: as Ben’s fellow soldier, he shares the danger of the climb; as an ammunition bearer, he sustains the BAR team; and as a sudden casualty, he makes the assault’s costs immediate to the men who survive him.