Airdate:
12/18/80
Jason’s army
unit gets a new soldier, Private Willis, a shy man whose timidity earns him a
reputation for cowardice. He explains to Jason that he had seen the horrors of
war but froze up, and has had dread feelings of fear ever since. Despite exhoratins
by the other men to ditch him, Jason keeps him on. When they arrive at an
abandoned town, news arrives of the Nazi surrender, but a young German sniper
in the second story of a church doesn’t believe the news – Jason and Willis,
who speaks German – try to coax the man down, with Willis showing fearlessness
by dropping his weapons to gain the sniper’s trust. On the homefront, the
Godseys are being prosecuted by the rations board for giving away merchandise
without collecting stamps.
VE Day is depicted here with the first combat-based episode of the series. Thecentral story, somewhat borrowed from The Red Badge of Courage, is simply told, suspenseful, and ultimately moving. Gritty Jason is a far cry from his piano-playing alter ego. And Jim Bob, on leave from his Air Force training in Virginia, is trying to get home, dispute being guided, circuitously, by a local farmer played by black character actor Davis Roberts (Good Times, Sanford and Son). Private Willis is well played by Mark McClure, but not that Marc McClure (Superman, Back to the Future).
As this is VE
Day, the setting date for this episode is May 8th, 1945.
That is Back to the Future Mark McClure. I just watched it. It's not listed on his IMDB page but it's him. He's the one on the bottom right in the soldier picture.
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