All Things Nice » Band of Brothers

34: Night

On H-Hour, D-Day, their destination was Normandy, France. They would be jumping behind enemy lines, just as they'd been trained to, in order to take out German guns aimed at Utah Beach to enable easier beach landings. Posey ran through the objective over and over again in her head, repeating it like a mantra to ensure she didn't forget. Then, when she tired of that, she ran through the names of roads and bridges and rivers and every discernible landmark she had picked out from the sand tables. They had all been told to study the sand tables closely to ensure they could navigate Normandy should they miss their drop zone. For her part, Posey had studied them relentlessly, her anxiety gnawing away at her until she was making sure that going to see them was the last thing she did at night and the first thing she did in the morning.

She'd been scared in the Blitz, but she didn't think she'd ever known fear like this.

Where she sat with the rest of the men set to be jumping from the same plane as her, she stared at her hands. She looked up only briefly when Roe handed her her airsickness pills, one to be taken now and one when they were in the air, and then resumed her staring again. She took the pill, swallowed without water, and listened to the noises of the airfield around her. This might be her last time on home soil.

Winters addressed them all briefly, Posey didn't hear a word, and then he was helping them all up from the ground one by one. When it was her turn, Posey finally drew her eyes up from the ground and looked into his. There was something reassuring in his eyes, something hopeful, but still uncertain. She forced a tight-lipped smile and moved along to let him help the next man along up.

When she sat in the plane, waiting for the engine to start, everything seemed much too quiet. No one spoke. Everyone had retreated back into their own minds, some form of self-preservation perhaps, and bore their evils alone. Beside her, Toye seemed to be reckoning something with himself; his lips moved rapidly but no sound came out. Or perhaps Posey simply couldn't hear it. The quiet seemed artificial somehow, as though maybe she was the only one experiencing it. She had only ever known loud when surrounded by all of these men.

Then came the noise.

When the pilot started up the engine, the world roared to life around her. Where there had once been silence there was now uproar. It took a while for the plane to begin moving, and when it did Posey's heart leapt up into her throat, as though trying to make a bid for freedom.

As the plane lifted off of the runway and became airborne, Posey began fiddling. Everything she had on her to fiddle with, she did. She thought briefly of her stowaway teddy bear tucked safely into one of her inside pockets, pressed tight to her underclothes, and wished she could take him out and squeeze his paws as she'd done as a child. It seemed only right that he was sitting that close to her heart, though - everything she'd experienced in her life, she'd experienced with him by her side. Now they would be heading into war together. She worried briefly what would happen to him if she didn't make it home.

They were in the air for a couple of hours, which felt like a couple of weeks. When the red light came on, signalling they were close, Winters clipped his chinstrap closed and rose to his feet, as unceremoniously as if he was leaving church after a service.

Into the rattling cacophony of the cabin, he belted, "Get ready!"

Posey, along with the men surrounding her, held up her clip. She fumbled it for a moment, her hands shaky and slick with sweat, but quickly held it up once more. She wondered how worried she looked, how much her face was betraying.

"Stand up!"

Posey rose unsteadily to her feet and slotted into the line. Staring at the back of Popeye's head, she wondered whether this might be a good time for some famous last words.