The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

22: Below the Belt

"Okay," said Lieutenant Meehan, clapping his hands together, "let's get you into height order, Lieutenants, so we can match you up properly."

Charlie decided she rather liked Lieutenant Meehan. She liked that he addressed them as 'Lieutenants' instead of 'girls', that he spoke to them in the same tone of voice as he spoke to the boys in, and that he'd explained everything to them before trying to throw them in at the deep end, as Maddox had seemed to want to do.

Meehan had explained that they would start off being paired up with some of the smaller boys while they learned the basics, and as they became more familiar with the manoeuvres they'd move up the scale, as it were, on to the bigger boys. The idea set Charlie much more at ease - trying to fight someone like Frank, who was very muscular, yes, but not much taller than her, was much less intimidating than having to fight someone like Bull Randleman, who she'd only briefly encountered the other day after unknowingly remarking on his size aloud. His nickname suited him, to say the least. If she ended up having to spar with him at any point she was sure the other nurses would be carrying her home on a stretcher.

The nurses quickly got themselves into height order, with Violet on the far left as the shortest, then Mabs, then Autumn, and then Charlie as the tallest.

When Mabs bent forward to look down the line at the order, she guffawed. "How come Charlie's the baby and yet she's the tallest? That just ain't fair!"

Charlie laughed and shrugged as she bent forward to look back at her. "You're slacking, Mabs. All those extra years and you couldn't grow a few extra inches?"

Mabs stuck her tongue out at her playfully before the both of them stood back up straight.

Lieutenant Meehan went about matching them up, forming a line of the smaller among the boys (which didn't always necessarily mean the shortest, because Bill Guarnere wasn't among the taller of them but there was no way he was going to be paired up with one of the nurses on their first go around). Eventually, each of the nurses had a boy to work with on the basics. Violet was with the smallest of all of the boys, a Private Joe Wells who everyone called Duckie. Charlie knew him only in passing because he was good friends with George (and, apparently, didn't get along at all well with Bill), but she had to agree that he was definitely the smallest of them. George heckled him as he went to stand with Violet about taking care of 'his girl' for him, which made both Duckie and Violet blush furiously, much to everyone else's amusement.

Mabs had been put with Popeye Wynn, who Charlie knew from being Shifty's friend from home. Autumn had been put with Frank, and Charlie had been put with Skinny.

Lieutenant Meehan went over what he called 'disengagements' with them first - which was, how to get away when someone grabbed you in different ways. The boys were patient with having to start from the beginning with things they'd already covered in boot camp, and only joked with each other quietly as Meehan talked everything through.

At first, Charlie found the whole thing rather embarrassing. Skinny was so gentle with her she had a hard time attempting to rip his hands off of her wrists, and she blushed every time she had to touch his hands. After a while of doing the same thing over and over again, however, the blushing subsided and she eased into everything a little easier. This was when Skinny started cracking jokes.

"I bet you five bucks Boo gives Duckie a nosebleed." He ducked his head toward Charlie's conspiratorially and grinned as he awaited her reaction.

Charlie laughed. "I'll take that bet. Violet's way too gentle to make anyone bleed."

Skinny shrugged. "Trust me, with Duckie it don't take much. Popeye damn near knocked him unconscious back at Toccoa."

They soon moved on to punches and blocks, then parries, and before Charlie knew it it was time to switch partners.