The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

55: To Be Sent to You

Easy Company and the 23rd Field Hospital were finally moved away from the Island.

Charlie and Floyd had to leave Trigger behind.

Charlie had begged and begged and begged Henry to let her take him along with them but she'd refused every time. They couldn't take him out of Holland, she argued, so it wasn't fair to take him far away from his home only to leave him somewhere unfamiliar.

Floyd had expected as much and had found, he said, an elderly couple who were willing to take him in. Charlie cried as she said her goodbyes on the couple's doorstep, her fingers curled into Trigger's fur and her face buried in his neck. And Trigger cried, too, as though he knew what was happening. And maybe he did. He'd been left behind once before, after all. He was an old hand at this by now.

"I love you, buddy," Charlie told him, leaning back to look at him.

He whimpered and she sniffled.

"I'll miss you," she told him, scratching behind his ears one last time. Her head was aching with how hard she was trying to keep her tears quiet and keep from sobbing, conscious of the three sets of human eyes on her. With a kiss to his head she whispered, "Thank you for everything," and finally let him go.

Floyd, already having said his goodbyes, gave Trigger one last pat on the head before stepping away and gesturing for him to go into the house.

"Thank you," he told the elderly couple.

They nodded, their English limited, and the woman smiled.

"A lot of love," she said, gesturing between Charlie and Floyd.

Charlie sniffled. "Yeah," she said quietly, wiping at her nose with her sleeve, her eyes on Trigger, "he's very loved."

The woman smiled again. "Adres?"

"Address?" Floyd asked.

"Voor foto's?"

"To send us photographs?" Charlie guessed.

The woman simply smiled, oblivious as to whether the translation was correct.

Hurriedly, conscious of how little time they had before the trucks departed, Charlie took the notebook and pencil the woman offered and wrote down the address through which she received all of her mail while working for the military. The woman took it back with a smile.

"Good luck," she said as both Charlie and Floyd stepped back from her door, Trigger now disappeared into the house with the Dutch man.

"Thank you," Charlie said, at the same time Floyd said, "Thanks."

And that was the last they saw of Trigger. In person, at least.

The company was placed in the Arnhem area after that. It was only around an hour away from the Island, but far enough away that they were no longer living in trenches when they weren't in the CP or the field hospital. Even still, Charlie chose to spend most of her free time in the CP. Most of the men chose to do the same.

The operation to rescue the company of British paratroopers trapped on the other side of the Rhine was moved forward and, into the silence of the night, the remaining men of Easy crossed the river to retrieve them. Charlie waited with Mabs, Boo, Autumn, and Henry in the field hospital, all of them with bated breath, wondering how bad the casualties would be.

In the end, there were none. But, with the success of the mission, what there was was champagne, and lots of it.

The British Colonel Dobie had organised a party to celebrate and had all of his men, along with the Americans who'd rescued them, driven to some Dutch town or other so they could drink the night away together. It was only because someone mentioned offhandedly to one of the Brits that they felt bad about leaving the nurses behind that a truck was sent back for them, too.