Ray smokes his third cigarettes. The effect of airsickness pill that were distributed before they take-off has begun to fade. The cancer stick calms him a little. As calm as you can get when you are about to jump behind enemy line. Nobody speaks. Maybe they're praying, try not to pee themselves or maybe still a little bit loopy because of the airsickness pill.

It's dark inside the plane. They took-off at 2300 hours. There is only some window in the plane. Ray cannot see what happens outside the plane, but he knew that below him, thousands of US, British & Canadian Army are crossing the English Channel. Easy Company's mission is to secure causeway number 2 behind Utah Beach and destroying German's coastal artillery battery for the Allied forces landing from the sea a few hours later.

Then the party begins. First, Ray only hears the muted "boom" sound. Minutes later, the sky is alive with red, blue and green tracers of German anti-aircraft fire. It's like flying through the fireworks of the 4th of July, multiply 1000 times.

His adrenaline is pumping. His senses never feel this alive, even back then when he's digesting Ripped Fuel like candy or when he's got ambushed in Iraq. This is much more intense.

The pilot switches on the red light. They all stand up and hook up to the static line. It's time to jump.

Luck plays a big role that night. Ray hears Luz ask Cobb to exchange seat. Luz is 5th in the stick and, with all his equipment, radio and all; he thought he would never manage to get out the plane. Cobb is 4th and Ray is 3rd in the stick. There's Lipton in the 2nd and Buck in the 1st as the jumpmaster. Luz and Cobb switch places so Luz is now behind Ray. Just seconds after they make equipment check, heavy flak hit the plane and hit Cobb. Red light changes to green. Ray only got seconds to see Luz's ashen face, before he walk to the door and jump into the night.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Shit! That was close" Ray mutters in his breath.

He tries to steer his parachute when he hears a ripped sound. He looks up and sees his parachute has been torn, maybe being shot by a machine gun. It's too low to open the reserves parachute, so Ray tries to maneuver it as much as possible so he will not be an omelet in French soil.

He ended in a tree and maybe got unconscious for several minutes. He wakes up hanging in a tree, in his harness. Shit! Again? What is it with Ray, parachute and tree? Well at least there's no broken bone. He tries to reach the knife in his boots. Not successful.

Suddenly he hears a snapping branch. He whispers the passcode "Flash". He hopes the respond will be "Thunder", or Ray's a dead meat.

"Thunder…Jeez, Ray. What is it with you, parachute and tree? ". Behold, it's Jolly Old Saint Luz.

"Shut the fuck up, George!"

This is plain undignified.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

They walked along the edge of the forest. They haven't met any of their comrades.

"Do you know where we are, Ray?"

"Normandy."

"No shit"

"Look…just look for any landmark, Okay. City signs, church, bridges. Anything. I have a map. Then we can decide where we are going."

"Okay…."

"What is it, George?"

"Do you think Cobb gonna be okay? Shit! That could be me, Ray. And most of my things got lost with that fucking leg bag. I also lost my radio. I'm a radioman without a fucking radio!"

"Cobb's gonna be fine. As annoying as he is, I think his guardian angel still want to save his ass. About your radio, just remember what Winters always say 'Rifleman first, Radioman second'. At least we got our rifles. You'll get your replacement radio when we're in assembly area."

Luz calms a little. "I think that smack on your head did something good for you, Ray. You're getting wiser."

Suddenly, Ray trips and falls in all fours. Luz tries his best not to laugh, but Ray can see his shoulder shaking.

"Shit! I'm blind as a motherfucker here. Where's the goddamn NVG when I need one?"

"What's that?"

Shit. NVG is still in developing stage by the American during WW2, although the Germans already use it for their Panzer tanks. Ray tries to find the right answers "Err… Night Vision Goggles. I've read a bulletin that the Army is developing that kind of shit for night war."

Before Luz can respond anything, they heard sounds from their behind. Luz drags Ray into the hedgerow and they hide. They stay silent when they see a group of German soldier pass them using a horse carriage. Really? A horse carriage? That is so ancient. The Germans already develop night vision devices but still use horses for transportation. How weird is that? No wonder the Allies gonna win this shit. They hide until the Germans are gone.

Luz whispers, "That was close. Do you know what they're talking about?"

"Maybe they're discussing Christmas present for us."

"Smartass"

xxxxxx

After 8 hours of walking through swamps, mosquitoes and dead livestock, not to mention dead paratroopers & German soldier, they finally met the other Easy men in their designated assembly area, Le Grand Chemin. The smell of the village is beyond disgusting. There's a big pool of blood in the main road, comes from the dead livestock previously used by the Germans for road block. The sun already high so the heat and the smell is overwhelming.

Bill is the first one who sees Ray and Luz "Hey, Luz….Ray… still breathing aren't ya?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Gonorrhea. But who will babysit Perco if we dead?"

Frank only answer, "Fuck off, Ray"

"I love you too, Perco. So..Bill…any news? Where are the rest of the men?"

"I think they're still scattered. We all missed our DZ. I got here this morning with Winters, Malarkey, Popeye, Lipton, Toye, one man from Able and 2 men from 82nd."

At this point, Frank cut in "Luz, do you have extra toothbrush? Mine was in that fucking leg bag."

Luz pinches the bridge of his nose, sigh and answer with patronizing voice, "Jeez, I can't believe you're married. Poor woman. Come on, Perco. We're going to supply office. I want to report about my radio."

Ray starts again, "So Bill…you're sayin'?"

"What? Oh… Right… Lt. Meehan still nowhere to be seen, so Lt. Winters' now our C.O until we receive news about Meehan."

"Really? That's great. Winters is a cool dude."

"He what?"

"Nothing. Continue." Ray keeps forgetting that he cannot use dude, yo, homes, dawg or brah when calling people. Usually, when he slipped to say those words, Easy men only eyeing him like he's crazy; inventing some bullshit words.

"Did you smack your head again, Person? Anyway, Strayer ordered us to taking care German artillery battery in Brecourt. The order were only, may I quote 'There's fire along that hedgerow there. Take care of it'. Can you believe it?! There're only 12 of us at that time, and we didn't have any idea how many fucking Krauts we're going to face. The battery initially been reported as three 88 mm guns, but it turned out, there were FOUR 105 mm guns and one MG! "

"Shit!"

"Yeah, well, no shit. Winters did some recon and then we attacked the battery. That was some serious strategy, he did. Me, Malark and Buck were flanking to destroy the MG & provided covering fire. Then he and the rest of the guys destroyed the guns, one by one. Lt. Speirs, ya know, from Dog Company, come for reinforcement. That man has a death wish, I tell ya. He practically destroyed the last gun himself by running outside the trench and gunning all the Krauts. Then, Winters found some Kraut's map that marked the location of all Kraut artillery and machine gun positions throughout the coast, so we returned to give these maps to Lt. Nixon. And you know how many Kraut we're actually faced? Around 60! We had one casualty, Hall, that's the guy from Able Company. Oh…and Popeye was getting shot in the ass."

Ray is dumbfounded. Winters is definitely a cross between a Saint and a fucking ninja. Leading 12 men, facing 60 enemies, taking four guns and one machine gun, bring back an important piece of intelligence, with only one casualty. After this, all Easy men will look at him like the sun is shining from his ass.

"Is Popeye okay?"

Bill laughs, "Ha ha…that guy? He's repeatedly saying he's sorry. Over and over again to Winters. 'I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I goofed. I goofed. I'm sorry.' "

"He what?! He's shot by the Kraut, for fuck's sake! Why the hell he felt sorry for?!"

"Yeah. Apparently, he didn't like to be sent back to England this fast. He said, 'I just got here'. That's Popeye to you."

Again, Ray found new respect for Easy men. These guys are so dedicated to their company that they apologized for getting hit. Now here was a soldier - hit by enemy fire in Normandy on D-Day, behind the German lines, and he is more upset that he had let his buddies down than he was concerned with his own injury. Popeye's actions spoke for all of them.