Summary: What if Major Winters agreed to have the Easy Company shipped to Pacific Theatre? This story takes the company to the Pacific where they battle and try to save not only their lives but others as well. A fight along side General MacArthur as they claim back the islands seized and occupied by the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I do understand that this is a factual company, and hope that I do not offend anyone by this story. I am honored to have had a grandfather fight along Americans during WWII, and proud of my relatives and the men and women that are currently serving this Country. God Bless.

Author's Note: As much as I want to keep this story on romantic antics, I also have to show the real side of war. I enjoy writing chapters like these, a self indulgence for myself. Now Operation Downfall was indeed a plan to invade Japan. The atomic bomb was known to only a few people, many of the generals were left in the dark until at least two days before the bombing. That would include General MacArthur who like many armed leaders denounced the bomb.

I added the paratrooper part, but for the most part I did somewhat outlined the invasion as accurately as possible.

Now General Gibson is a fictional character, I didn't want to use General Swing, because I didn't want to give him a fake life (like having a daughter, etc.). He was really charge of the 11th Airborne. Jablonsky is real; he was part of the 13th Airborne.

Here's the low down. I'm starting my spring semester tomorrow. I'm also looking for a job. So I'll be real busy but I promise that the next chapter will be up by at least the 30th. I'll write my responses to your reviews in that chapter as well.

Take care and please don't abandon this story. This is all for you guys!

Chapter 10

July 25, 1945

Colonel Strayer had made sure that Major Winters remembered the meeting, by having one of his orderlies act as a runner, while another called. The meeting was to take place once again at Manila Hotel, this time in General MacArthur's private suite. Admiral Nimitz and his staff had traveled overnight from their headquarters at Guam to attend and participate in the meeting.

Major Winters had some inkling as to what the meeting was about. That night he saw Cassandra he had also been at Manila Hotel, accompanying General Gibson to a similar meeting. The meeting was set up for General MacArthur to meet with all his Generals and figure out the amount of men left on the Philippine Islands. He also mentioned the concept of sending out troops to secure parts of the Japanese Islands.

He arrived earlier then the proposed time at Battalion HQ, to find it close to empty, only two of the ten orderlies remained for Colonel Strayer. Colonel Strayer himself was still having dinner with a commander of an Aviator fleet. Major Patch wasn't even on base; he had gone into Manila and promised to meet them at the hotel instead.

The orderlies had shown him into Colonel Strayer's office and left him to his own devices. He had snooped around but there was only so much a person can snoop through. It ended with him just looking out the waist high windows. It had been raining all day and as late afternoon approach, it just got heavier.

"Dick,"

A strong voice boomed behind him, at once Richard did an about face, gave a salute, and stood at attention. Colonel Strayer didn't even notice as one of his orderlies helped him out of his coat, the other dancing around with a water proof jacket in his hands.

"Let me just change into another jacket, God damn weather, it's been raining cats and dogs all day." As the other orderly rushed out with the wet leather airborne jacket, the other helped Strayer into the water proof one. Dick only wore his leather airborne jacket. "Alright let's get the hell out of here. You'll ride with me." Dick hadn't said a word but complied and followed Strayer out of the building into the rain, into an awaiting automobile.

-W-

"Colonel Strayer!" General Gibson greeted him first when they entered his office. His office was near the entrance of Clark Base Airbase, where all the administrative offices were located. A handshake was shared between the two high ranked officers, and then Gibson turned to Winters who stepped forward with a smile and a handshake. "Ah, it's nice to see you again, Major Winters."

A small sign of confusion crossed Strayer's face, but it left as quickly as it came. Like Strayer, Gibson was bringing along two orderlies, now Dick was thinking he should have brought Salinski along.

"Sir the commander officer of 2nd Battalion, Major Patch, will be meeting us at Manila Hotel." Strayer informed Gibson, as they all moved out in unison to the vehicles. Gibson traveled with his orderlies in a private automobile, with Strayer's driver following close behind.

Both Strayer and Winters were sitting side by side, with the orderlies trailing behind in their own jeep. It was a quiet trip from Clark Airbase to Manila Hotel, with occasional hard bumps in the road. By the time they had arrived at the hotel though, the rain had slanted sideways with the wind. All of them had to hurry into the hotel so that their shoes and pants wouldn't get wet.

Major Patch was awaiting them by the rotating door; Strayer gave the introductions between General Gibson and Major Patch. Afterwards all four high ranked officers and the four orderlies, made their way to a private elevator, which led all the way up to General MacArthur's private suite. In the elevator General Gibson gave them a brief overview of what they were to hear in the meeting.

"The Army and Navy have been planning an attack on Japan for some time. It's an Allied plan called Operation Downfall. This is a joint attack from both the Army and Navy on the southern most parts of Japan. General MacArthur is the Commander-in-Chief, much to the dismay of those pansies down in the docks."

All the men shared a collective chuckle at General Gibson's stab at the Navy.

"You're here by my invitation, so keep your mouths shut and your ears open." Gibson glanced up at the dial that showed how many more floors they had left. "I want to warn you, there's going to be a hell of a lot of brass in there." The door chimed letting them know that they had arrived at their destination.

'General Gibson wasn't lying when he said there was going to a lot of brass.' Richard thought to himself as they entered the suite. Their coats were taken away by a Filipino butler. It looked like they had entered a sitting room of sorts; the room looked big enough to fit his modest home in Pennsylvania, smack in the middle. It looked like every kind of uniform in both the Army and Navy, all of them with their own orderly, and all a high ranking officer, had convened together in that suite.

They all spend their time wisely, many of them mingling with other men. Major Richard Winters was talking to an aviator who flew one of the B-47's in Europe, when a bell rang. It came from the same butler, but he was standing before a set of French Styled doors. "The meeting shall now commence." His accent was soft and understandable; he gave them a slight bow, turned around and opened them.

At once everyone started filing in, Dick watched with slight amusement at how General Gibson pushed his way through. He looked very keen on reaching the place first and did so with Strayer and their orderlies trailing close behind. Dick just shook his head and kept to the semi lines till he finally got in. It seemed the reason that General Gibson had rushed was so he could get the best seat in the house. He got one right next to General MacArthur, and Strayer next to Gibson. Already the three were in deep conversation. Richard managed to claim a chair that stood against the wall, and Major Patch took one a few seats down from Dick's. Orderlies stood behind their boss' chair, many of them laden down with folders.

The atmosphere eluded importance and heavy secrecy, and it had quieted down to low murmurs, before another bell was rung. At once it was complete silence expect from the sounds of rain drops hitting the glass windows. The wind had died down letting the rain fall straight down in big fat drops.

"Good evening gentlemen," General MacArthur greeted them; his seat was in the middle of the table, between General Gibson and Admiral Nimitz. Dick noticed that all the naval officers were sitting on Admiral Nimitz side, while the Army officers were sitting on General MacArthur's.

"As some of you know, both Admiral Nimitz and I have been planning an invasion of the Japanese Islands since the start of April. This undertaking calls for an armada of battleships, destroyers, and carriers. It also calls for a large amount of able bodied men, many of them most likely shipped from Europe to the Pacific."

"The invasion's code name is Operation: Downfall. It has been broken up into two sub operations: the first is Operation Olympic and the second is Operation Coronet. The intentions of Operation Olympic is to capture the Japanese island of Kyushu, it is located on the southern most part of the Japanese islands." A large map that covered the majority of the dark oak wood table showed the whole of the Pacific. With a long stick one of General MacArthur's aides pointed at the island. "The island Okinawa would be used as a staging area for this invasion. The date chosen by General Marshall is November 1, 1945, the code name X-Day. This gives you three months to re-train and be re-supplied with men."

"In order to displace any notion of a direct invasion, we included a deception plan. The code name is Operation Pastel. This plan is to let them, the Japanese, believe that instead of invading, we will encircle and bombard Japan." Many of the officers raised a questioning eyebrow, while others muttered about. Richard was a little concern as well, where were they going to get the extra ships and perhaps even men to perform the deception? Also there is a chance that the Japanese could catch them on their bluff. "In order for Operation Pastel to work though, the island Formosa must be captured."

A Major raised his hand from among the colors of dark greens and light browns. General MacArthur eyed that hand for a while till he pointed at the man. "Sir if I may ask a question?"

"You're already asking, but yes you may."

"Sir would Operation Pastel be done by the Navy or the Army or is it a joint exercise?"

"It will be a joint exercise." General MacArthur waited a few seconds before continuing on. "The U.S Twentieth Air Force will remain and continue its role as the Allied Strategic Bomber force. General Spaatz will also be in charge of the newly formed U.S Far East Air Forces, F.E.A.F. It is comprised of the Fifth, Thirteenth, and Seventh Air Forces." General MacArthur acknowledged General Spaatz with a nod; he was sitting not too far from Dick.

"The F.E.A.F will be responsible of attacking and disabling Japanese airfields and transportation arteries on both Kyushu and Southern Honshu. They will also be responsible for attaining and maintaining air superiority over the landing beaches. Attacks will commence the day before X-Day, and continue their support during the bombardment of the beach heads."

The orderly in charge of showing the men in the room, the areas that General MacArthur was mentioning, leaned forward with his stick slapped the areas that General Spaatz and his men were to destroy. General Spaatz and his men leaned forward to study the area, while some of the aviators made their way through the crowd to look at the map as well.

"Admiral Nimitz will continue the instructions of Operation Downfall," General MacArthur sat down in his chair at once one of his many orderlies rushed over with a cold glass of water. Which he took and drained it in two gulps, handed it over, and sat back to listen to Admiral Nimitz.

"The Navy will provide protective shelling to the U-boats that will take the Marines to the designated beach heads. All of the Pacific fleet docked in Guam will be participating in the operation. I will also include the destroyers in Manila Bay to the fleet as reserves. Before we can continue our campaign, we must obtain the offshore islands of Tanegashima, Yakushima, and Koshikijima. The islands would provide shelter to ships that are not needed or have been damaged by air attack. As we all know Okinawa had proven this method to be essential for naval purposes."

The same orderly again motioned to the small islands off the coast of Japan.

"Reconnaissance see little or any defense on those islands, it is believed that the Imperial Army had pulled most of her men back into the main land for the upcoming invasion." Finished he sat back down and General MacArthur got up again.

"The U.S Sixth Army led by Lt. General Krueger will be invading at three points: Miyazaki, Ariake, and Kushikino. There will be 35 beach landings, all named after an automobile. One corps will be assigned to a landing. Paratroopers from the 101st division, 13th Airborne and 11th Airborne will jump four hours prior the invasion and destroy the six garrisons pointed at all three landings."

Richard couldn't help but chuckle silently to himself; it was close if not nearly the same as his mission during D-day. He glanced over at Strayer who seemed to have the same thought playing over in his head as well.

"Now intelligence tells us that the Nips are not only arming themselves to the full capacity, but they are also arming civilians as well. We can also assume that they will use most of their kamikaze planes during Operation Olympic. Men, the Nips are crazy son of bitches; they'll do anything to protect their country. You keep that in mind as you train your men, because what you teach them could save their lives."

"More information will be accessible as the date approaches, this meeting is dismissed." At once everyone got up at attention and saluted General Spaatz, Krueger, Admiral Nimitz, and General MacArthur as they left the room. Richard was already in deep thought as he made his way over to General Gibson and Colonel Strayer. He was thinking up the PT schedules for 2nd Battalion, the promotion of veterans, and the vast amount of replacements that would be coming in.

General Gibson was in charge of the 11th airborne division, so he made sure that Colonel Strayer and Colonel Jablonsky of the 515th PIR of the 13th airborne division were standing next to him. A follow up meeting was to be held at General Gibson's office back on base. The drive was slow since the roads were all muddy, and the animals whose pins had fallen apart were walking and standing around in the streets. The traffic to Clark was even worst since it was the opening night of the long anticipated dance hall.

They exited their vehicles and preceded to General Gibson's office, situated on top of a hill that over looked the parade field and into the distance the air plane hangers. The orderlies made themselves useful peeling off their own wet coats and then helping the officers out of theirs as well. Another started a fire; General Gibson took a seat behind his desk. Colonel Strayer and Colonel Jablonsky made themselves comfortable in the plush chairs that faced the General; while Winters, Patch, and another Major who arrived with Jablonsky made themselves comfortable by leaning on a desk or the wall.

"I highly doubt that we're going to need the paratroopers who are on reserve in Europe." Gibson muttered after pouring a drink for himself, Strayer, and Jablonsky. He lifted the bottle to the lower ranked officers, all three declined. "But just in case you better give your officers the heads up."

"Yes sir," both Strayer and Jablonsky echoed.

"I'm going to move first battalion up to Fort McKinley with your second battalion, Jablonsky. I'm keeping my second and third here in Clark." He glanced up to look at the three majors, Winters muscles tensed, his muscle memory use to standing at attention. "You boys gather your officers and tell them to make calisthenics schedules, and get ready for replacements. I know your E company needs it." His last comment was more directed to Winters, then to Patch, but it wasn't noticeable.

"Yes sir," All three answered in unison.

"Alright then, you're all dismissed." At once Strayer and Jablonsky got up, while the three majors took their jackets off the coat rack. "Wait!" Everyone stopped they were doing, General Gibson was already standing as well. "Now I'm not a hard ass when it comes to behavior, but keep your God damn paratroopers in check. I hate having my evening dinner and cigar time ruined by Major Kenworthy. I don't like the MP. So when Major Kenworthy comes knocking on my door, you bet your ass I'll be in front of yours. Unlike him I'm not going to be civil."

It was quiet in the room except for the shuffling of shoes outside the open door, and the sounds of papers being moved.

"Is that clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Go on, I know some of you boys are itching to get your feet on the dance floor." The men nodded and made their way out of the building into their jeeps. Dick was the last to leave the room giving General Gibson a nod of the head. Strayer dropped Dick off at battalion's HQ so he could drive back to barracks in his own jeep. He got in and sat there for some time, just thinking. Almost laughing at himself he started his jeep and instead of driving back to the barracks; he made his way to the dance hall.