What racial tensions are evident in the early parts of the film lost battalion?
There were not any racial tensions in the movie because up until the 1950s, the military was segregated by race. Blacks would serve in one division, whites in another, etc. However in the movie, the battalion is made up of companies where the soldiers are from different parts of the U.S.A. This was very unusual at that time because companies would be put together based on where you lived in the states. Guys from New York would be put in a company together, guys from the south would be put in a different company, and the same with guys from the West. When the one Southern soldier is doing a head count at the beginning of the movie he starts pronouncing the New York guys’ last names wrong. This is because most of the guys from New York at the time were sons of immigrants from Europe. Which would explain why he would confuse the names because he’s used to hearing American names like Washington being from the South.
