Why was Corporal Upham told/allowed to linger in the rear when the rest of the group had to risk their lives taking the machine gun nest in the middle/end of Saving Private Ryan? During the scene, no one wanted to take the nest and no one volunteered to take left (before Jackson finally volunteered)
My guess for why he was allowed to linger in the back was since at the beginning of the movie, he seemed jittery with combat and Capt Miller thought he would be a liability to the group. Another thought was if they got wiped out, he would still be alive to go back and tell someone what happened to the group.
A third thought was someone could bring the gear quickly if/when they did take the nest, which is what happened in the movie.
Any other possible thoughts with reasonable explanations?