A Soldier of No Importance [ Band of Brothers ] 1

FORTY TWO

May 1944

Fury coursed through Alice's veins as she slammed the door to Nixon's office in the Regimental quarters. To call it an office was stretching the truth; they'd managed to fit a desk in a walk in closet. But she hadn't needed more than a closet door to slam her anger. Her boots pounded the wooden stairs as she hurried down to street level.

Don't do anything stupid, she'd told Bill back in January. Alice hadn't known she should've said that to literally every boy in Easy Company. Since the New Year began, the men of her company had managed to make poorer and poorer decisions until it came to a head a week ago when George Luz had pissed Sobel off enough to make the man take it out on the entire company.

Except he'd not really taken it out on the entire company. He'd taken it out on Dick Winters. As Alice's boots hit grass, she felt her blood pulsing. She'd thought the stupidity would've ended with Sobel, though. But no, no of course it hadn't. But she'd not expected Richard Winters, of all people, to be the one to take stupidity one step further. He'd asked for a court martial trial. That would've been fine if it hadn't left Easy Company without its best officer so close to the inevitable invasion of Europe.

Her meeting with Nixon hadn't lasted ten minutes. They'd both been angry at Dick, and they'd both agreed to figure out a way to get him back. Nixon would look into talking to Sink and Strayer. Alice though, she had other plans before talking to Sink.

She didn't bother to knock on the re purposed barn used as Easy's enlisted base. Dirt and some stray straw littered the floor as she threw the door open. Without a second thought, she rounded a corner. Around a table, the eight non-commissioned officers of Easy Company passed papers to Lipton. At her entrance, they startled.

"Lieutenant!" choked Talbert through his canteen.

Alice paused. With narrowed eyes, she scanned the men before her. They fell silent. Her eyes rested on a small pile of papers in Lip's hands. "What are you doing?" Their continued silence made her pause. "Lip, give me those."

Lipton sighed. Pushing back his chair, he walked over and met Alice halfway. He handed them over. Everyone watched Alice read the top one.

"We ain't jumping with Sobel," Guarnere declared.

Alice bit her lip and let her hand, which held the resignations, fall to her side. Her left hand went to her hip. "Honestly, the stupidity of Easy Company never ceases. First Platoon making Sobel actively look like a fool, Dick deciding he'd rather be court martialed than take another punishment, and now this?"

"This is something that's been a long time coming," Johnny argued immediately. He stood up and circled the table until he stood closer to her. Then he leaned against it, half sitting half standing. Johnny gestured to the papers. "You know he's going to get a lot of men killed."

Alice shook her head. Her gaze wandered between all eight of them. Johnny Martin, Bull Randleman, Carwood Lipton, Bill Guarnere, Myron Ranney, Terrence Harris, Floyd Talbert, and Chuck Grant, the first line of defense between the rest of Easy and the incompetence of Sobel's leadership, stared back at her.

"Yes, yes he is. But a mutiny?"

Grant scoffed. "Come on, Lieutenant. Since when did you care about army regulations when it comes to safety."

Alice glanced at him. She frowned. "I would do anything to win this war. You going against your army protocols isn't my issue. It's that by doing so, you could be leaving this company, your company, without some of its best men not a few days after losing its best officer."

"What would you have us do, then," Harris argued. He folded his arms over his chest. "Keep going like nothing's wrong? We've done that for two years now."