A Company of Heroes

Curahee Training and Probable Promotion

Chapter 3:

Friday night marching was one of the very few things that Easy Company hated and it was told they had to walk 12 miles with every single piece of equipment on you and with the canteen full the first time they started the Friday night marching everybody had kept their canteen full and later on had to pour the contents onto the ground. It was halfway during the March that Donnie had been placed in between Bull Randleman and George Luz that Bull had decided to speak, "I'm gonna say something" Luz replied, "To who?" Randleman called out, "Lieutenant Winters" "What is it?" "Permission to speak sir?" "Permission Granted" "Sir, we have nine companies' sir" "That we do" "So how come we are the only company marching every Friday night in the pitch dark?" "Why do you think Private Randleman?" "Lieutenant Sobel hates us sir" Winters pulled straight in front of Malarkey's row before answering, "Lieutenant Sobel does not hate Easy Company Private Randleman he just hates you." Every man in the company heard the comment and started laughing also telling each other that Sobel hated them as well. Right behind Donnie, Martin decided to pull Donnie's leg a little, "Hey Murphy" getting Donnie's attention "I think Sobel hates you the most" "Really, I'll be damned". At the end of the Friday night March Donnie stood to attention and as ordered held out and the caps undone and on Sobel's and Winter's orders they were to pour the contents onto the ground which they did but one man's canteen stopped early leading to Sobel to chew the man out and punish him with re-doing the 12-mile march that man was Pat Christenson the unfortunate victim who Donnie had befriended during their run up and down Currahee. Once every man had been dismissed they returned to the barracks when Donnie started to limp and walked through the pain when he saw his feet looking blistered.

The next morning the company engaged in pretending to jump out of an airplane but with Sobel watching over him like a hawk he had no difficulty jumping out of an airplane with a full pack on and succeeded in accomplishing the task later on the company worked through an assault course to get from start to finish fast Donnie was running at full speed and with the encouragement of Winters "You can do it Murphy! You can make it over that wall! Don't stop!" As soon as he got to the wall he strategised how to get over it quickly and without sustaining injuries which he did and once he reached the end he almost ran into Joe Toye but steadied himself before speaking "Man that was easy" Joe quickly smiled and replied "Damn right hey good job kid you did well" "So did you". Once the obstacle course was achieved lectures were beginning with Sobel who kept rambling on about what it means to be a paratrooper and a soldier. For an unknown reason Sobel always picked on Donnie to answer but was stunned by the answers he gave and nearly every man in the hall was chuckling their heads off. "Chew on that" Murphy thought.

"MAIL CALL!!"

Every man in the barracks raced out of their bunks swarming the company mailman while Donnie sat with Guarnere talking about some topic on baseball when he heard "Murphy" and received 3 letters from the mailman one from Eric, the second one from his Mom and sister and the third one from his girl back home he picked up the letter from his brother which said "Dear brother, glad to hear you made it to Toccoa you and I both know we are doing this because our country asked us and it would have made Dad proud. I made it out to the Pacific being sat on a ship isn't exactly fun but I am coping with the stress of waiting to fight. Mom told me to tell you that a storm came up to Canaryville and the tree house was smashed sorry little brother. Keep doing good in training I know you'll make it into the Airborne you would make a fine soldier. Got to go. Good Luck Eric". He then went to pick up the letter from his girl but decided to op for the one from his mom and sister which he opened and read in his head, "Dear Donnie, I hope your doing ok up in Georgia I wondered how your father would be if you joined up he would have said and I quote "Donnie will be training to fight with the best that's what I did when I first joined up and that is what Eric is doing as well" I hoped that he would be proud of you as he always was. Betty is doing ok as well she was upset the first few nights but managed to get over her fear that you would not come back she always goes down to the church to light a candle for you and prays to God that you are doing ok. I must let you get back to your training keep going and no matter what people tell you give it your all it's in your blood. With love, Mom and Lizzie." Donnie smiled at his 2 letters from his family and decided to put the letters in his Jacket then soon realised he forgot about the letter from his girl which he had picked up and decided to go somewhere private to read it in but once he opened the letter he felt his spine go cold when he smelt the perfume sprayed on the letter realising something was wrong he decided to open it, "Dear Donnie, when you left for Georgia to join the Airborne I felt heartbroken that you were going to leaving the states and fight in the war, I tried to support you in your choice but I didn't want to wait for a letter explaining your fate, the other reason I am giving you this letter is because I found somebody new he's a infantryman just about to ship off to England, I'm sorry to tell you this I feel awful about my decision please don't get yourself killed out there please. I will always remember you and will care about you. With Love Theresa xxx" Donnie felt a tear coming down his eyes and wanted to cry but he would not allow it he then trudged on back to the Barracks where Guarnere was waiting for him and when he saw Donnie's expression he decided to ask him "What's up bud?" "Nothing's up I'm ok" "Come on Donnie you walked in and looked like you were about to drop to your knees do I have to grill ya any further?" "Alright here read this" Donnie handed him the letter from Theresa when Guarnere opened it and enquired, "Who's Theresa?" "My girl or she was my girl" as Guarnere read the letter he felt sympathy for the guy who had his girl leave him for a straight leg infantryman as he read each word he handed the letter back to him and said, "Hey sorry to hear about your girl but I'm pretty sure there will be other girls like Theresa soon enough, here I'll make a deal with ya once we get our wings and before we are probably heading out for Europe or wherever they want to send us. You, me, and a couple others are going to go find a couple girls and go dancing with them up in New York City I tell ya they do the best dance clubs there you won't regret it so whaddya say?" Donnie smiled immediately and soon enough replied, "Hell yeah I'm all for it Bill" "Attaboy" once they had their conversation Sgt. Lipton burst in calling for the company to get into PT Gear as they were doing calisthenics in 3 minutes they scrambled to get into their PT gear when they saw Lieutenant Winters coming up to lead them in exercises Murphy then thought "What the hell is going on?"Malarkey who was exercising then spoke to Muck, "Hey Muck you know why Winters is leading us in PT" "Got no idea maybe Sobel is being relieved of command" Murphy decided to inject himself in the conversation, "Na, if he had been relieved of Easy we would been notified of a new Company CO" "Murph's got a point Muck plus both him and I know because we have had family in the service".