Episode 1 - Dittrich and Tipper playing cards

Just re-watching for the first time in too long.

The scene when Guarnere got ingot a fight with Liebgott on the ship, and you've got Tipper playing cards with Dittrich and asking him "What's all that about?", just had a thought - right there you've got the very first man of Easy Company to die (Dittrich in a pre-combat training jump, the final one if I recall correctly) playing cards with one of the last remaining 14.

Just.. kinda'.. strange, and reminds me of the grand scale of the story and the amount of time that has passed. That one of those lads is dead very soon, and the other is still alive today... with all but 13 of the other men in the company between them.

Which then gets me thinking, why did Dittrich have a speaking role in the first episode, with dialogue in two scenes, when he was dead in the first episode anyway. Then it occurred to me maybe they had planned to include his death.. maybe never even filmed it but nonetheless had the character in a speaking role because they had planned to include his death.