The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

5 | camp athene medals

" Every day is a new beginning. Take a deep breath, smile, and start again."

- Unknown 

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When their final day of training arrived, it seemed everyone was ready for it to be over, all over it, the 5 mile run past the Noyo River and up Gibson's Cliff, the mud runs, the colorless food. Everyone was excited to get that graduation rank and then finally move to their specialties, especially that of the 20 women heading off to become part of the Airborne. 

Catherine was eagerly talking about it at lunch that day as Lizzie read off the flyer that the men they'd be training with after this had initially read in the first place. Hazel sat by quietly listening to them talk about it and such but Hazel was just excited about the fact they'd made it this far and were going to be graduating with high marks for 250 women. 

Operation Virago had been given their own uniforms, however similar to the ones of Army wear as Camp Athene was connected to Fort Bragg an Army Fort. 

Each woman had a camp with the symbol of Athena on it to represent Operation Virago, and their uniforms were a dark, deep brown almost like dark chocolate where they had sewn on their ranks to the side as well as the symbol on their arms of Virago, which was a few with silhouetted symbols that the rumors called by the men, the Amazon Warriors. They were skirts, with a bit lighter brown color of a belt, with dark brown Oxfords. 

As the women got ready on that Saturday in November, Hazel couldn't help but feel an ounce of pride swarm her stomach as she slowly adjusted her cap onto her head comfortably, looking in the mirror. 

She had made it. 

The large room the 250 women were in, in their 3 platoons, was large, with bright lights and pictures of past Commanders like that of Ridgway hanging on the walls as well as pictures of platoons and companies and of the Fort Bragg itself. Thermes stood, saluting Ridgway in front of him as Ridgway entered with a seemingly proud smile upon his face, Sergeant Sweeney at his side.

" Sir." Thermes said saluting Ridgway.

" Captain Thermes." Ridgway said saluting the man with a proud smile upon his features. Ridgway dropped his salute and Thermes followed as he turned and walked with Thermes forward to where the 3 Lieutenants and Loughty were.

" Ladies." Ridgway called as silence filtered out of the room, his voice bouncing off of all the walls, " I am proud to be standing here now, looking at all 250 of you who made it through this training. I am proud to officially have been part of this Operation. Operation Virago. And I'm proud that you all took this training as seriously as you all did, for the greater good. You've all earned a spot in the United States military and you've all earned your ranks. This training wasn't easy, it was meant to break you and then build you back up again, before you continued. It was meant to make your brain truly think about your actions and keep you focused on your task. To train your mind to remember even the littlest things, keep distractions out of your line of sight and even remember that crooked pillow." Hazel felt her heart swell.