In a Crowd of Thousands

In a Crowd if Thousands

    Sergeant Steven Moretti sat in his bunk in the barracks drafting two letters; one to his mother, Dorothy Moretti and the other to the love of his life, Fanny Turner. He told the both of them of the stifling heat in Camp Toccoa, Georgia compared to New York. He told them about their awful CO (Commanding Officer), Herbert Sobel, a man who deemed it his personal mission to make training more of a hell than it already was. He left out some of the more gruesome details like puking in the heat and having to crawl under barbed wire through pig guts left to bake in the hot Georgia sun in the letter to his Ma. He didn't want her to worry more than she already was. Out of her five children, two of her boys were overseas. His older brother Mark was in the Pacific, somewhere like Guadalcanal with the Marines, he hoped it was nice there. His younger brother James however, was too young to enlist. When the recruiter told him he would get paid fifty more dollars to jump out of planes, he asked where he had to sign. Scared his poor Ma half to death. He told Fanny that when he came back, they would get married. He didn't have a ring yet but when he sent money back home, he told her to save a couple dollars in an envelope and they could go get one when he got back. When, not if.

    Across the Atlantic a few weeks later, Fanny Turner was sitting at her kitchen table reading her letter from Steven. She laughed after reading his story about George Luz impersonating their CO in the barracks. She was excited to meet some of his new friends like Luz, Bill Guarnere, and Joe Toye whenever they got to come back to New York. So Fanny drafted a letter to him telling him about how things were back home, at the hospital, how she was doing, and how glad she was that he had already found people he trusted. Her father had been in the first World War so she knew how important it was to have people you trusted in combat. She had initially wanted to join the Nursing Corps but the doctor she worked under refused to sign her recommendation letter, claiming that she was needed more in the hospital stateside. She sincerely doubted that was true but nonetheless she stayed. She missed Steven sorely and hoped this war would be over soon. Everytime she thought about his promise, she couldn't help but smile. They were going to get married. She took the precious piece of paper and slipped it in her favorite handbag.

    It was late August when Sargeant Moretti along with the rest of Easy Company received orders. They were going to Europe, England specifically. They were going to be billeted in Aldbourne and continue training exercises there. He was writing to Fanny about it and the change of address. He couldn't tell her when they were going to England or where in England they were going but he could tell her when he would be back from Georgia. But not only were they shipping out, they were shipping out from the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard. He would get three days with Fanny, his ma, his father, and his siblings. He planned on surprising his family with Fanny's help, he told her when he would be back and to meet him at the same train station he left from. He took the letter down to the CP (Command Post) and just hoped for it to be delivered in time. He was so restless that night that his bunkmate, Johnny Martin, told him to "quit moving" and "stuff it" at least three times.

    Fanny opened the latest letter from Steven and her heart dropped. He was shipping out. It was finally happening, he was going to war. But he was coming home first. She had to stay positive. He was going to survive and they were going to get married. She trusted him and his judgment, he knew what he was doing. They've been training for this for months. When she realized that, her mood turned giddy. She hadn't seen him in two months. It seemed so silly to think back to her worries when he left for training when now it all feels so surreal. All the training was going to be put to use and that was absolutely terrifying to her, she couldn't imagine how Steven or the rest of the men in his company felt. She laughed when she read that he wanted her help to surprise his family when he got to the train station. So on August 29, 1943, that's where she would be. She slipped the newest addition in her handbag to add to the growing collection.