At six AM sharp the door to Group B's billet burst open, jolting a few of the women awake. "Rise and shine!" an unfamiliar male voice bellowed, stirring the few who had managed to sleep through the previous ruckus. "Chow time, ladies! Get it while the getting's good because at six-thirty we've got maps and compasses and you won't get another shot at food until twelve-thirty."
Just as soon as the man had stormed into the billet, he was gone again. Margot could still hear the faint shouting, but her focus was mainly on her heartbeat, which was just starting to return to a normal pace after the abrupt awakening.
"No matter how much sleep you get, six always comes way too early," Francine grumbled as she flipped the covers off of herself dramatically and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
"I already want to quit." Marion began to get ready, not awake enough to realize that she was trying to stuff her left foot into her right boot.
Despite the sleepy complaints and mindless groans, the women were in their jumpsuits and boots in a matter of minutes. Once they were all ready, they turned for the door.
"Wait." A small voice stopped them in their tracks. Spinning to face the noise, the women stared back at Annie, who was still standing beside her footlocker. "We have to make the beds," she told the group when they shot her puzzling looks.
"Right." Betty smiled as she headed back towards her assigned bed. "Thanks, Annie."
With a small smile on her face, Annie got to work on her bed while the rest of the women did the same. A minute later the beds were made and the billet looked untouched, just like it had when they arrived the day before.
Breakfast was a rather quiet affair, and after finishing their bowls of oatmeal just before six-thirty, Margot lead the way to the classroom where their first maps and compasses class was being held.
With mostly open minds about the subject, the women sat down in their seats, willing to learn. Right when the clock struck six-thirty, a man walked through the door and situated himself at the front of the room. His dark hair was cut a little longer than a buzz cut and his face was cleanly shaven. Dressed from head to toe in uniform, just like Captain Miller had been, he radiated authority.
"My name is Lieutenant Shaw and I will be your group leader for the next five days." The man began to introduce himself, his loud, attention-demanding voice throwing a blanket of silence over the room. Margot recognized the voice as the one that had woken them up that morning. "You will refer to me as Lieutenant Shaw or Lieutenant. My job is to make you the smartest, toughest, and fastest group of army women this country has ever seen. You will do what I say, when I say it, without any complaining. If you listen to me and my instructions, you might just make it through this training camp. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Lieutenant," the room answered in unison.
"Good." Lieutenant Shaw nodded before turning to the wall of maps behind him. "First lesson of the first day: maps and compasses."
For an hour the women of Group B learned how to navigate with a map and compass. First, they learned how to read maps, then compasses, and finally they moved on to the basics of plotting a course using the two tools combined.
Margot found the information to be a lot at once. After a few tries, she could work her way around a map. Using the compass was a little more difficult for her because she had never even held one before, but the hardest part was plotting courses. When her map reading was right, her compass was off, and vice versa.
Annie, however, picked up the skill in no time. Drawing on her previous knowledge that she had obtained through high school geography classes, she was able to get back up to speed and pick up the new information like it was a walk in the park.
Throughout the class, Lieutenant Shaw observed the women, jotting down notes about each recruit and their progress with the class. Some he noticed had a natural talent while others made up for the lack thereof with hard work and a strong desire to learn. There were a few who seemed altogether uninterested in the task, and he made sure to write that down as well.
At seven-thirty the girls were dismissed and told to change into their PT gear for the four-mile run. This was the first real test the women would be facing, and with the hot sun high in the sky and not a single cloud in sight, a hard test it would be.
Margot faired much better at this activity than the last and managed to keep a steady pace at the front of the group with Lena and Marion for the whole four miles. Annie struggled at some parts, especially the uphill ones, but she was determined to stay in the middle of the group as much as possible and actively avoided being last. By the end of the run, her legs ached something fierce but she didn't let it show for even a fraction of a second. She didn't need the others, or Lieutenant Shaw for that matter, thinking she was weak.
After a short break where the women were allowed to catch their breaths and drink some water, they headed over to the obstacle course where they high stepped through tires, swung across a small moat of water, crawled through the dirt under strands of wire, and climbed up and over the wall at the end.
One after the other the women went through the course with Lieutenant Shaw half yelling, half encouraging them along the way. "Again!" he shouted over and over until each and every member of Group B made it through the course without too much trouble. Most of the women got the hang of it after a few tries, but Annie, the smallest of the bunch, continued to fight against the tires and the wall. Her little legs could only lift so high and her short arms could only reach so far.
After what seemed like hours upon hours of going over the course, the women were finally dismissed for lunch. Letting out sighs of relief, Group B slowly trudged towards the mess hall, their jumpsuits covered in grass stains, sweat, and dirt.
"I feel like I might actually fall apart." Betty craned her neck to the sides, a few small pops releasing as she did. "I haven't been this exhausted in ... ever."
"Well, enjoy the rest while you have it," Margot told her as she reached for her bottle of lukewarm water. "Next is the march, then weapons training, another few hours of classroom instruction, dinner, showers, bed, then do it all again tomorrow."
A soft whimper came from the end of the table and the women turned to look at Sandra, who was staring blankly down at her food. "I can't do this," she moaned, her eyes trained on the plate of mushy rice and some sort of meat in front of her. "Everything hurts. Why did I agree to do this?"
"You can always quit," Cathleen suggested flatly, earning her an elbow in the ribs from Marion.
"Hey," Marion spoke softly to the quickly crumbling woman in front of her. "Don't give up yet. I know it sucks now, but your body will get used to it. Trust me."
Her face lifting slightly, Sandra forced a small smile as she picked up her fork and pushed some food around on her plate. "Yeah, you're probably right."
"I'm always right." Marion beamed gleefully. "Now eat your food. You need the energy."
As the conversation switched back to something a little more neutral and easy-going, Margot glanced over at Annie, who was sitting at the end of the bench, quiet as ever. At first, Margot had been sure the girl would crack under the pressure, but so far all she had seen was a determined young woman who took every challenge that was thrown at her head on. Maybe she had been wrong, but then again, this was only the first day.
The eight-mile march wasn't as bad as the woman had initially expected. Sure, they had been loaded with weighted backpacks to imitate all the gear they would be carrying into combat, but with the afternoon came a light, cool breeze. They didn't have to run or jog, only march, so by the time they had reached camp again two hours later, their spirits were high.
Weapons training, however, was a whole other story. To put it bluntly, Margot was the only one in Group B who had even a faint idea of what to do. She knew well enough how to take the gun apart, put it back together, and fire it. The M1 Garand was the standard issued rifle of the Army at the time, and although Margot had never used that one exactly before, she picked up on how it worked pretty fast.
Before long, both her and Lieutenant Shaw were teaching the others the basics. As Lieutenant Shaw watched the women fumble with the rifles and shy away at even touching them, he began to think this whole 'women in the Army' experiment had been nothing but one big mistake. The most important thing in war was being able to protect yourself, and if these women couldn't even do that, then they didn't stand a chance.
The day of classes and training ended with another in-class session where the women learned army lingo, hand motions, and basic skills they would need in the field. After the long and physically demanding day they had had, however, the women were grateful for a few hours of sitting down and listening.
Dinner, like breakfast, was quiet as well. The women grabbed their trays, slid into the long mess hall tables, and ate. Everyone was exhausted and sore and wanted nothing more than to shower and sleep.
"Good evening, ladies!" Captain Miller marched into the mess hall, addressing the three groups of trainees. "I hope everyone had a good first day. Many of you are probably extremely mentally and physically exhausted right now, but I want to remind you, should you choose to continue, it will get easier."
A few of the girls mumbled something along the lines of "easy for you to say" or "I wouldn't exactly call it a good first day" before Captain Miller continued.
"Behind me, as you can see, there is a board with twenty-five slots." He gestured to the board which had the word RANKINGS above it. "This is where you will be ranked from top of the program to bottom of the program. The board will be updated every evening so you can see where you stand, who's above you, and who's below you. Think of it as an incentive to push yourself harder. One thing I do wish to remind you is that even if you are ranked number one, it doesn't mean you will be moving on to train with the men. The best here in Tennessee could still easily be the worst in Georgia, and I'm not in the business of sending less than up-to-par soldiers out into combat."
With that, Captain Miller bid the women good night, hoping to see each and every single one of them in the morning for day two of Camp Mirage's women's training program. As he took his leave, a pair of men stepped up to the board and began sliding cards with the names of the women into the ranking slots.
Margot was more than pleased when she found herself at number three, behind two others, Hannah Ginner and Lonnie Trent from Group A. She was sure her weapons skills had helped tremendously with her score and went happily back to eating moments later, the knowledge that there was still plenty of time to improve her ranking sitting comfortably with her.
Cathleen sat happily at fifth with Marion only two spots behind her at seventh. Francine was at tenth, Betty at thirteenth, Sandra at fifteenth, and Lena at twenty-third.
Annie was disappointed, to say the least, when she found herself only four spots above Lena at nineteenth. She had thought, despite her struggles, that she had shown enough enthusiasm and drive to at least be in the top half of the program. What made her even angrier though was that girls like Sandra and Ethyl, who didn't even really want to be there, were still ranked above her.
Furrowing her eyebrows in anger and disappointment, mainly at herself, Annie went back to eating and promised herself that she would do better the next day.
●●●
By the next morning, just like Captain Miller had predicted, a decent handful of women had quit the program and boarded early buses back to their home states. Sandra Hughes, who had spent most of the night softly sobbing into her pillow, was to no one's surprise part of that handful. Along with her were three other girls from Group A and two others from Group C, leaving only nineteen left in total among the three groups.
For the rest of the women who had decided to stay, however, the day went by just like the one before. The trainees in Group B woke up at six sharp to the loud hollering of Lieutenant Shaw before getting up, getting dressed, making their beds, and heading off to breakfast.
Maps and compass training went a lot smoother for Margot the second day, and by the end of the class, she fully believed that she was getting the hang of it. During the four-mile run, Annie managed to stay in the middle of the group the whole time and avoid falling behind altogether, even during the uphill parts.
The obstacle course still proved a challenge for many women, but Lieutenant Shaw made sure they knew that they would not break for lunch until each and every one of them could complete the full course fifteen seconds faster than they had the day before.
At twelve-thirty five the women of Group B cheered on Annie as she went through the course for her seventh time that day, her last run only being thirteen seconds faster. "You got this, Annie!" Marion called to the small girl as she swung over the moat. "Only two seconds faster!"
As Annie approached the final obstacle, the wall, she pushed off with all her might, her hands just barely grabbing onto the top and stopping her from falling back down. With a little help from her feet, she managed pull herself up and over the wall and complete the course.
Looking down at his stopwatch, Lieutenant Shaw's mouth curled into what might have passed for a smile. "Sixteen seconds faster than yesterday," he announced, causing the women to hoot and holler. "Break for lunch!"
●●●
By the end of the second day, taking into account the new scores and the women who had left, the rankings had changed. Margot had moved up to second, which she was thrilled about. "Only one more spot to overtake." She gloated shamelessly to her group as she peered at the first place trainee from group A, Lonnie Trent, out of the corner of her eye.
Annie was also happy with her new ranking. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she saw that she had climbed up seven whole spots to twelfth. "Good job, Annie." Margot congratulated her groupmate, still blown away by the sheer tenacity of the blonde girl.
"Thanks." Annie smiled when she realized that had been the first time Margot had spoken to her directly besides cheering her on during the obstacle course.
The third and fourth days went by in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it, the ladies of Camp Mirage were waking up for their fifth and final day of training. The numbers had slowly dropped as more and more women quit and went home. Group B was down to Margot, Annie, Cathleen, Francine, and Marion, while Group A was down to four members, and Group C had only three left.
Margot was still standing strong in second place, and even though she didn't know how much further ahead Lonnie from Group A was, she was sure they were neck and neck. Cathleen had managed to secure herself in the fourth place ranking overall, her progress staying more or less stagnant after the first two days. Marion had climbed two spots up to fifth, Cathleen's old position, and Francine was in seventh by the end of the fourth day.
The biggest and most baffling improvement in the whole program, however, was little Annie Winslow from Connecticut. On day one she was nineteenth, on day two she climbed up to twelfth, on day three she had secured ninth, and on day four, the most impressive jump of them all, she found herself sitting in third place, right behind Margot.
Overall, the ladies of Group B had the highest ranking trainees out of the twelve women total in the program.
Margot was surprised just how fast she had managed to fall into a regular schedule and by the fifth morning, she found herself waking up five minutes before Lieutenant Shaw came barging through the billet door.
The ladies jumped out of bed with ease, got ready, tidied up, and were heading down to breakfast an impressive two minutes later. Day five went off without a hitch, each and every single one of the women giving it their all from start to finish.
Margot had gone from useless at map and compass reading to nothing less than proficient, Annie had managed to stay at the front for the entire duration of the four-mile run, and the total average time it took the women of Group B to finish the obstacle course was five minutes; a full minute faster than they had on day one. There had even been significant improvements in weapons training, and with the help of Margot and Lieutenant Shaw, each and every member of Group B knew their way around their gun and could fire with decent accuracy.
All in all, the amount of progress Captain Miller saw among the women in the short five days they spent at Camp Mirage was nothing less than remarkable. That being said, he still wasn't sure if any of the ladies had what it took to train with the men in Georgia.
●●●
Tensions were high as the women of Camp Mirage sat down for dinner on their final day of training. Most were eager to see where they stood in the end, and while many knew they most likely wouldn't be moving on, the anxiety of finding out if anyone at all had made it through was thick in the air.
Plates were left untouched as the women nervously chatted among themselves, eyes darting over to the entrance every few minutes to see if Captain Miller was walking in.
"I think I passed Lonnie." Margot shifted beside Cathleen as her pupils fixed themselves on the ranking board. "You think I passed Lonnie?"
"I think you passed Lonnie," Annie assured her groupmate in an attempt to calm her. "You had a textbook performance today and I heard Lonnie's time on the obstacle course was down by ten seconds."
Francine widened her eyes at the blonde girl. "I think that's the most I've heard you talk this whole time."
The table broke out into a fit of laughter and some of the jitters melted away as a result. Just then, Captain Miller strode into the mess hall, his presence immediately bringing a hush over the room. Taking his spot at the front, he looked down at the papers in his hands, whispered something to the men beside him, and then turned to face the women.
"Well, this is it." he began and the women hung onto his every word. "After five long days of training, I am proud to say that you women have shown outstanding improvement and have exceeded mine, and the Army's, expectations. I know you're all eager to see the final rankings and find out who, if anyone, will be shipping off to Georgia in the morning."
With a broad gesture to the board behind him, the men on either side of Lieutenant Miller began to change the names around. Margot watched with bated breath as one of the officers grabbed her name, and when he replaced Lonnie's name with hers at first place, she was sure she had stopped breathing.
"Oh, thank God." Margot finally let out the breath she had been holding in.
What confused the room, however, was when Lonnie was knocked down not to second place, but to third. Eyes shifted nervously as they waited to see who had managed to butt their way in between the long-standing battle between Margot and Lonnie.
To everyone's surprise, and slight bewilderment, Annie's name slid into second place, dividing the two names the women had seen back-to-back for the entire five-day stay at Camp Mirage. Annie could hardly believe her eyes, and after staring blankly at the board for what felt like hours, she was shaken out of her trance by Francine.
"Annie, you did it!" Francine smiled wide, her expression ten times happier than the blonde girl herself. "You went from nineteenth to second! Annie, that's incredible!"
Margot couldn't help but feel a sense of pride for her group when she caught Lonnie staring daggers their way. Finally admitting fully that she had been wrong about the small, blonde girl, Margot reached across the table and patted Annie on the shoulder. "I'm surprised you didn't pass me as well and snag first out from under all of us."
Annie couldn't help but chuckle at that and before long the whole table was snickering.
Clearing his throat loudly in order to regain the mess hall's attention, Captain Miller continued to address the room. "Now that we know the final standings, I would just like to say once again that I am proud of each and every one of you." He made a point to gesture to each of the three groups of women. "But I know you all just want me to stop blabbing and answer the burning question at hand, so here it is."
The women watched as Captain Miller turned to the man on his left and took a folder out of his hand. "This women's training camp was held all over the United States of America with a total of four facilities throughout the country. Among those four camps, only this one has turned out the desired results as of now. Throughout the duration of this training camp, I have been in close contact with Colonel Sink of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. His division has been chosen to take on board the women, if any, who will be serving as fully fledged soldiers for the United States Army. With great pride, I am happy to announce that two women have shown the drive, skill, intelligence, and mentality to be a soldier."
The room broke out into small, quiet side conversations as Captain Miller pulled two paper bundles out of the folder in his hands. "These two women have shown me and every other person here that they want this more than anything. They worked hard in everything they did, took challenges head-on, were willing to learn new things, and strove to do better than they did the day before. I would like you all to join me in congratulating Margot Kessler and Antonia Winslow. Pack your bags, ladies. You're going to Camp Toccoa, Georgia."