charlotte tarvers is only 14 when the war breaks out, but 17 when she signs up. she's heard the stories from her parents, lovers who found each other by chance on the front lines in world war one in the country of france, now passing down the storie...
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" Everybody has a chapter they won't read aloud."
- unknown
***
Her parents had come over from France when their children were young. Their father's last name was Tavernier but they decided Tarvers was a more American fitting name by that point in time. Young men were being sent to war like it was going out of style. Charlotte and her mother had her signed up for the Nurses' Corps by the next day, right after school had let out. Plenty of high school drops out were occurring by this point. Kids that were juniors and seniors were going off the military, girls going to the Nurses' Corps. Young husbands left as well, some older husbands with war experience as well. It terrified Charlotte. As Charlotte got home from school a week later, she opened the door and her heart stopped when she saw her parents, standing side by side pouring themselves over a letter in their hands. Charlotte dropped her schoolbag to the ground and walked forward into the room.
" Mom? Dad? " she called stepping closer to them. Her mother looked up at her daughter, and wiped her eyes, followed by a forced smile.
" I always knew, I'd have a daughter that'd follow in my footsteps." she laughed, out, more tears flowing down her cheeks, as she swallowed roughly. Charlotte's parents had met on the battlefield. Her mother had been a field nurse for the French Resistance in the Great War, her father had been a Lieutenant for the French as well. They were the teenagers in love, applying when they were only 16 each, and managing to find each other in the chaos, and getting married months after the wars' end. Leroy and Louis began their lives in France, and one Charlotte was born, moved to America for a new life after French government problems, and the kids grew up learning mostly English, now bilingual between the two languages. Charlotte took the letter from her parents hands and gulped at the signature.
To the parents of Miss Charlotte E. Tarvers,
We are proud to say that we accept Miss C. E. Tarvers into the United States Army.
Charlotte stopped and then read that sentence again. The Army? She applied for Nurse Corps, not the Army.
" Mom?" she asked, looking up, " Why does it say Army?" Her mother could only shake her head.
Miss C. E. Tarvers has qualifications to be a field combat medic for the United States Army. We see that Miss C. E Charlotte has signed up for the Nurses' Corps, but by circumstance, has been transferred to the Army. Your daughter is to be sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, to train as a field combat medic, and possibly jump behind enemy lines and go into battle with the men. Colonel Robert E. Sink has made this all possible, and has requested the bringing up of Miss C. E. Tarvers, and has requested her presence in the 199th Infantry Brigade. Her qualifications as medical personal, are the reason we've picked your daughter to take part in this wonderful opportunity. She will experience 8 weeks of combat training and medical assistance with a separate platoon before further preparation into become a paratrooper, a new concept in military history. It will be her choice what happens after that if she wants to continue into becoming a medic for the Airborne or to stay with Infantry. Your daughter will leave on the 22nd of April, 1942 to depart for training. We hope to see her soon in Fort Benning, Georgia.
