We Happy Few | Band of Brothers

Chapter 13: I No Longer Wish to Serve

Sobel was on a warpath. After the stunt that was pulled on him that resulted in about a dozen loose cows, he was looking for every and any way to punish the men and women of Easy Company; and who better to go after than their beloved Lieutenant, Richard Winters.

Margot, who had been playing a small pickup game of basketball with Perconte, Bull, and Malarkey, witnessed the beginning of the chaos with her own eyes. In the form of a small envelope delivered to Winters by Evans, Sobel had court-martialed the Lieutenant.

The court-martial didn't even make any sense, and when Lieutenant Winters tried to explain to Captain Sobel that there was no way he could have known his latrine inspection time had been changed when he was staying with a family with no telephone and when no runner came to the house, he was met with nothing but hostility.

Deciding to finally stand up to the adult-bully, Winters didn't take the punishment and instead requested a trial by court-martial. This action, however, meant that Easy Company would lose Lieutenant Winters to Battalion Mess while they tried to figure out the procedures for his court-martial. 

When Easy Company found that out, to say they were angry was a gross understatement. 

Sitting around a table with a few of the other Easy NCOs, Margot listened to the discussion at hand and threw in her two cents when she thought it appropriate. What they were talking about was something none of them took lightly.

"So we're going through with this, right?" Grant asked, earning nods from the members present. 

Lipton looked around the table and sighed. "Alright. Good. But we'd all better be clear of the consequences."

"I don't care about the consequences." Martin huffed.

"John," Lipton addressed his friend. "We could be lined up against a wall and shot. Now, I'm ready to face that. And every one of us had better be too."

Margot, whose leg shook as she took a drag of her cigarette, ran her free hand through her hair in frustration. "We shouldn't even have to do this shit," she stated. "The fact that we have to sit here and decide between jumping into war with an incompetent Captain or facing the possibility of being shot to death is insane! You're telling me this is really our only option? Decide between being shot out there or being shot right here?" 

"I already said you shouldn't be here, Margot." Lipton tried yet again to save the girl from the harsh reality of the possible consequences. "You've worked too hard to get kicked out or shot now."

"You know that's not what I mean." Margot leaned forward in her seat and put out her cigarette in the ashtray in front of her. "There's no way in hell I'm gonna stand by idly and let this happen. I just think it's absolutely fucking nuts that we have to do this in the first place."

Accepting the strong-willed woman's decision, Lipton eyed the rest of the men, his gaze landing on Guarnere. "I will not follow that man into combat," Guarnere asserted. 

"Me, neither." Bull agreed. 

"Alright." Lipton took a deep breath. "Then let's do it."

Pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil, Margot wrote down word for word, along with everyone else, what Guarnere told them to. Ten seconds later she had a letter that had the possibility of ending her career or even her life.

I hereby no longer wish to serve as a non-commissioned officer in Easy Company. 

-Margot Kessler

Once everyone had signed off on their notice, they all looked up at each other, faces flushed with worry and fear. As Lipton collected all the letters, he stood up and gave the table one last nod. "Alright. Good luck."

●●● 

"I ought to have you all shot!" Colonel Sink addressed the NCOs standing before him in his office. "This is nothing less than an act of mutiny while we prepare for the goddamn invasion of Europe. Sergeant Harris." 

"Sir," Harris responded.

Colonel Sink folded his hands over his stomach. "Turn in your stripes, collect your gear. You are hereby transferred out of my regiment. Get out."

With a final solute, Harris turned and exited the office. "Sergeant Ranney." Sink moved on to the next Sergeant in line.

"Sir."

"You consider yourself lucky I'm only busting you to private." 

Margot felt a lump in her throat form and her palms begin to sweat as Colonel Sink's eyes settled on her. Her heart was beating against her ribcage hard and the only thing running through her mind was that she was about three seconds away from being sent back home to North Carolina to run her father's shooting range again. 

"Corporal Kessler."

"Sir." Margot's voice was strong even though the rest of her was practically shaking like a wet dog. 

"I put my job on the line vouching for you and Captain Miller's 'women in the Army' experiment," he began. "Through everything I have seen from you, I wouldn't expect you to be so stupid as to pull a stunt like this after how hard you've worked to be here. While transferring you isn't an option and busting you to Private doesn't seem like big enough of a consequence considering you're only a Corporal, I have half a mind to send you home right here and now."

There it was. Margot could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. So much for being the first woman machine-gunner to see the front lines of war. All she would ever be known as would be that girl who almost made history but instead messed it all up because she didn't like her Captain. 

"However-" Colonel Sink sighed, his temper lessening slightly. "I've invested too much into you to see you go down like this, so consider this a strict warning that if you ever participate in a rebellion like this again, or even so much as step out of line, I will have you out of the United States Army faster than you can blink." 

"Thank you, sir." Margot let out the breath that she had been holding in.

His eyes shifting to look at the rest of the men, Colonel Sink made sure they got the same message. "All of you NCOs have disgraced the 101st Airborne. You can consider yourself lucky that we're on the eve of the largest action in the history of warfare, which leaves me no choice but to spare your lives. Now get out of my office and get out of my sight."

With a salute, the NCOs of Easy Company exited the office and headed back outside. Winters, who was overseeing the delivery of kitchen supplies thanks to his new assignment to Battalion Mess, noticed the group leaving the building where Colonel Sink's office was and immediately knew something was up. 

Margot, along with the others, saluted Winters as she passed by, just happy to still have her job and her life. Once they were out of earshot, she hung her head and let out a nervous laugh. "I thought he was gonna shoot me on the spot," she confessed.

"But somehow you got away unscathed." Ranney huffed, clearly upset at his demotion to Private.

"Hey." Lipton calmed everyone down. "The important thing is, we've all still got our heads." 

After getting away with their lives, Margot and the other NCOs were convinced they had come out on top and were happy with the results. None of them expected their stunt to actually work, but apparently having a group of NCOs request to leave the service was enough of a wake-up call for Colonel Sink. 

A few days later, Captain Sobel was gone; sent to teach at a parachute training school at Chilton Foliat. In his place was going to be Lieutenant Meehan from Baker Company, who, despite being an unknown quantity, was sure to be better than Sobel.