Bianca Guerra, the first female paratrooper in the US Army. She has a long road to prove that she belongs and that she is worthy of respect and loyalty. But she ain't what the officers and the NCO's think.
Will she manage to become the soldier she...
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-"I witnessed the absurd scene of my company just stopping in the middle of combat. No. No. No. No." _________________________________________
BIANCA'S POV
The barrages on January 3rd, and the shelling on January 9th marked the low point in the war for many of the men in E Company. Even then, very few actually broke. But I knew the terror of those shellings and the unrelenting pressure we'd been under since we got to Bastogne could take their toll in other ways. I, along with other officers and leaders was afraid the men would lose focus, suffer a drop in morale. And that was dangerous, especially in combat. More of which lay in store for us.
We'd cleared the woods east and west of Foy. Now it was time for the inevitable assault on Foy itself. I myself wasn't dreading it. We've been hit with everything the krauts had, destroying so much of us, forcing us to say goodbye to good men, it made me hungrier for payback. I wanted to revenge the deaths of my comrades. The krauts were gonna pay for what they put us through. But I always knew that the Easy men who trained at Toccoa wouldn't get through the war unscathed, I knew that everyone wouldn't come home. And the shellings brought me to the thoughts if any one of us would ever set our feet on American ground again. But I knew that the men and myself weren't gonna give up, not just yet. We still had some fight left in us.
"Here you go." I said and lit up Lipton's smoke. It hadn't gone unnoticed that after Welsh was injured that my friendship towards First Sergeant Carwood Lipton had increased, rapidly. We experienced most of the horrors in Bastogne and Foy side by side, and I had found comfort in tagging along with him. He was a good man, and a good soldier to ask for advice and listen to. He knew what he was doing and I had a huge amount of respect and trust for him. And during our walks in between the foxholes, checking on the men, we had began talking. And a lot of our conversations ended with the subject of Lieutenant Dike. And that's why we were here, outside of the battalion CP, waiting for Winters.
"Hey, Lip, Guer." Winters said as he had finally gotten back and we walked together into the CP.
"We've been watching Foy all day, sir, not much activity." I said and he nodded.
"How's Easy's status?" Winters asked.
"The men are good, sir, they are prepared." Lipton said.
"I'm gonna be leading 2nd platoon tomorrow. They're probably the weakest after loosing Muck, Penkala and Buck. But all in all, I have every confidence in the men, sir." He said and I nodded slowly.
"Good." Winters said and I cleared my throat.
"But, on the other hand, sir. We have no confidence in our CO, sir." I said and he looked up at me.
"Lieutenant Dike is an empty uniform, sir." I said.
"He's just not there." I added.
"Well, he's gonna be there tomorrow." Winters said and I nodded slowly.
