His Story
Close Your Eyes and Jump
Private James F. Ryan looked out the window of the C-53 Skytrooper, enjoying the view of the calm night skies while they were still calm. In a few minutes they would be directly over Normandy, right in the shithole. According to the briefing, bombing raids the night before had softened up the Anti-Aircraft guns, but the transmissions that Ryan overheard on the cockpit's radio suggested otherwise. Every ten minutes or so a transmission would come through about another plane being "hit" or "going down". Which made the paratroopers aboard the C-53, nicknamed "Angel Eyes" nervous. Including Ryan, who felt a few beads of sweat forming on his brow.
"Hey" a private said, tapping Ryan on the shoulder. "You think this will be anything like training?" he asked him.
"I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be." Ryan replied "Just remember what the instructor back at basic told us. Just close your eyes and jump." Ryan wondered if it really would be that easy.
"Yeah, but what happens when we get to the ground?" he asked again. Ryan looked at the man's face. Well man might not have been the right word. He looked like he was still a kid, younger than eighteen, and Ryan saw that his pupils were completely dilated.
"Hey, don't worry." Ryan assured him. "Just listen to what your CO tells you and you'll be fine." Again, Ryan wondered if it was really that easy.
The boy was silent again for a few minutes before spoke to Ryan again. "Hey, what's your name?" he asked trying to get his mind off of things probably.
"Ryan" he replied "James Ryan." He added.
"James huh?" the boy repeated. Then, he stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet ya. Names Timmy Walsh." Ryan took Timmy's hand and shook it. "See you on the ground?" Timmy asked
"Hopefully" Ryan answered as he let go of Timmy's hand. In reality, he wouldn't mind being in the same unit as Timmy. It would be nice to have at least one friendly face around here. He and his brothers got split up a few months ago. He got shipped off to paratrooper school, and they went to who the hell knows where.
"Shit." He whispered to himself. He tried to get his family out of his head. They'd only distract him, and he needed to be complete focused.
"Ten minutes till we hit the DZ" the captain said over the planes radio. "Things are gonna get pretty hot up here soon, so hold on" he added as Ryan felt the plane accelerate. The red light at the front of the plane blinked on, signaling the soldiers to get ready.
He felt Timmy tense up next to him. He looked over and put his hand on his shoulder, "Calm down man, we'll be fine." His words didn't seem to have much effect.
"Sure man, sure" he muttered as he looked down at the aircraft's floor.
"Here we go! We're really getting into it now!" the captain said reported as the plane sped up even more. Ryan caught a flash of light in his peripheral vision. He looked out the window and saw a storm of fire consume the sky as hundreds of AA-guns unleashed their ammo on the helpless transports. Ryan saw several planes drop behind the pack, damaged and trailing smoke and fire. A few of the, began to fall to the ground as well
Ryan noticed the plane aft of him. It had a large decal of blue flames that ran down almost the entire plane's hull. Whoever did that must have been a real artist Ryan though to himself, trying to take his mind off of his current situation. He continued to stare at the flames until he notices the words "Drops:" etched under the cockpit window. Following that were five "X's" painted in black. Veterans, Ryan thought. Slowly the plane, nicknamed "Fire and Ice" started to lose altitude. The pilot banked and Ryan caught a glimpse of the opposite side, minus a wing. "Fire and Ice's" wing had been blown completely off and now they were dropping fast. Ryan saw several men try to jump out of the plane to save themselves, but their parachutes deployed too late and they plummeted to the ground. Ryan looked away from the window, and didn't dare look back out.
Ryan instead looked around at the faces of his fellow paratroopers. Some looked determined, other scared, and a few sat expressionless as the looked at pictures of their families no doubt. For the next few minutes everyone sat silent, waiting for that red light to turn green. As bad as the ground combat might be, everyone wanted the hell off of this plane.
The plane shook violently all of a sudden and several men fell out of their seats. Ryan overheard the chatter coming from the cockpit. Apparently, the plane had lost one of it's engines, which became obvious when Ryan felt the plane decelerate and drop slightly. The captain's voice came through the speakers again. "Looks like we lost one our engines, but I should still be able to fly this piece of shit." He sounded nervous, Ryan thought. "We're about five minutes away now." He added.
"You gonna get back alright?" Lieutenant Cavalier, the ranking officer aboard, asked the captain.
"Doesn't matter, all I need to do is make sure you guys get to the-"
"Shit!" Cavalier shouted as the cockpit exploded in a brilliant flash of light. The plane started to drop drastically and Ryan struggled to stay in his seat. Cavalier looked into the cockpit and looked away, his face turning black with soot. "Alright!" he coughed "We're dropping now."
A wave of protest washed over everyone in the plane. "Are you fucking crazy!?" one man yelled
"We're not over the DZ!" a second shouted
"We're right over the enemy!" another yelled
"Does it look like we have any other god dammed choice!" the lieutenant yelled. He grunted as he opened the hatch. "Let's go!" he yelled as he leapt out of the plane.
Slowly, the other occupants stood up and exited, some willingly, others needing a little push. When it was finally Ryan's turn to jump. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A second explosion rocked the back of the plane, Ryan whipped his head around to see the back of the plain rip itself apart. That was all the motivation Ryan needed. "Just close your eyes and jump" he said to himself and he jumped into the fiery night sky.