Warriors (Band of Brothers - Joseph Liebgott)

Chapter 11: Day of Days

Today was the day, today they would be jumping into France. Since Sobel had been re-assigned, they were left with a new Platoon leader; Buck Compton. All of the men had asked Mariah if the two were related; they weren't. Neither Compton had heard of the other either. Both found this situation hilarious though.

That afternoon Mariah was packing her bag and watching Liebgott giving some of the men mohawk's. Everything had been so hectic that Joe wasn't able to get around to cutting Mariah's hair. Hopefully they would have a little down time at some point so it could get done.

"Mariah!" A voice yelled. She lifted her head and saw Luz running towards her. "Let me paint your face!"

"Sure."

"Great! Close your eyes." Mariah did as she was told. She felt Luz's fingers begin to trace around her face. Then she heard him giggle. "Luz, I swear to god, if you're drawing penises on my face, I will remove your parachute and push you out of the plane."

"I'm not! You just look funny with this on is all." Luz said.

"Oh, thank you very much." Mariah said.

"EASY COMPANY! LISTEN UP!" Everyone turned around. "Channel coast is socked in with rain and fog, no jump tonight. We're on a 24-hour stand-down."

"Great, now I have to go wash all of this off of my face." Mariah groaned.

From across the air field Liebgott spotted Mariah and ran over. "Since we're not jumping today, should we finally cut that hair of yours?"

"Yes!"

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The next afternoon they got the 'ok', they were jumping today.

Everyone was sitting on the ground in front of the plane, backs against the legs of the person behind them. "Doc Roe is handing these out for air sickness, orders are everyone takes one now then 30 minutes in the air."

Mariah popped the pill in her mouth as Winters began to speak. "Second Platoon listen up; Good luck, god bless you. I'll see you in the assembly area." Winters grabbed the hand of the man in front of him and pulled him up. This continued until everyone was in the aircraft.

"How are you feeling?" Toye asked Mariah.

"Just peachy." Mariah said leaning her back against the wall of the plane.

A few minutes later the plane engine sputtered and came to life. Mariah looked at the men surrounding her; some men were looking at their shoes, some were staring into space, some were praying, some were leaned back with their eyes closed. The plane began to take off and Mariah closed her eyes and prayed this jump would go smoothly.

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They had been in the air for a few hours and Mariah's anxiety was growing stronger. To calm her mind, she began counting; how many men were in the plane, how many boots were around her, the bolts in the plane, even her teeth. Ever since she could remember whenever she was anxious, she would count objects. It helped to calm her mind.

As Mariah looked to her left, she saw Liebgott looking sickly.

"ARE YOU OKAY?" She yelled.

"THE PILL WE TOOK IS STARTING TO MAKE ME FEEL SICK." Liebgott yelled back.

Mariah turned to Toye and hit him on the shoulder. "GO GET WINTERS! JOE'S NOT FEELING WELL!" Mariah yelled at Toye when he faced her.

"I'M ON IT!" Toye yelled getting up and walking towards Winters.