Eddie then learns how the Captain died - something he had never put much consideration into before, as all the men in the platoon had lost touch with each other after the war. As the Captain and his men were making their escape from the prison camp, the men were tending to Eddie's leg wound in the back of the truck as the Captain cleared the path ahead. As he scouted ahead, he stepped on a land mine that would have destroyed the truck and killed all the Captain's men, instead making the battlefield the Captain's final resting place. Eddie learns his second lesson about the importance of people's willingness to make sacrifices for others, big and small.