It didn't take long for word to spread outside the confines of Camp Toccoa that there were women in the army. As predicted, the consensus on the matter was more or less split down the middle. Some thought the idea of women in the army was a blatant disservice to the United States of America, while others believed it was about time women were allowed to work the same jobs as men.
Thankfully, due to being tucked away at Toccoa with their days completely filled up, Margot and Annie had little free time to read the things being written about them in the papers; not that they would even if they had the chance.
With no contact with her father, Margot was spared the opinions about herself from anyone outside of the camp. Annie, however, wasn't so lucky. Ever since sending the letter to her family about what she was really doing in Georgia, she received personal letters from pretty much every member of her family, immediate and extended. She even received a letter from her boyfriend Steve, and to put it simply, he was none too impressed with her 'man-hating, feministic-fueled stunt.' She had never had Steve speak to her like that before.
While most of her family had indeed tried to come across as supportive, Annie could see the subtle implications in their words when they told her to 'think carefully about what she was doing', 'remember how dangerous war was', and 'be careful around the men.'
Annie only responded to a few of the letters before deciding that she had enough to deal with during her training as it was and didn't need to be put down by her family as well.
●●●
With the bulk of the physical tests now upon the men and women of Easy Company, the paratroopers in training endured daily activities such as jump training and an obstacle course that put the one at Camp Mirage to shame.
Following Sobel's orders, Margot stood in the doorway of the makeshift, wooden plane before jumping down the meter or so to the ground. With legs straight, she only let her feet touch the grass for a split second before flopping onto her back in order to avoid breaking any bones when it came to the real deal.
"Next." Sobel nodded as Margot moved to the sidelines to watch the remaining Easy members complete their jump.
Falling into line between Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere, Margot watched with a great deal of amusement and worry as Walter Gordon threw himself out of the fake airplane, his limbs flailing before he smacked into the lawn. As Sobel pointed out the fact that he had done literally everything wrong, Margot let out a sigh.
"Great, my partner just broke both his legs." She glared at Gordon as he moved to join her and the others. "Smokey, I am not carrying your ass into Nazi-occupied land because you decided to throw yourself out of the plane like a sack of wet laundry. I am warning you now, I will loot your body and leave you for dead if you pull that shit on D-day."
"That's comforting." Smokey couldn't help but laugh along with the others. "Good thing I'm the one carrying the Browning, then."
Margot cocked a brow at the man, a sly smirk appearing on her face. "Yeah, and I've got the ammo. What you gonna shoot with no ammo?"
"How you gonna shoot with no gun?" he retorted.
Margot narrowed her eyes at her machine-gunner partner. "Touche," she admitted.
Next up on the schedule for the day was the dreaded obstacle course. Everyone from the large Bull Randleman to the small Annie Winslow despised having to complete the course. From the moment they began, they wished it was over.
Hearing the whistle loud in her right ear, Annie folded her arms above her head as she high-stepped through the large rope squares. She tripped once in the middle and then once again at the end before sprinting to the wooden chutes that she crawled through and somersaulted out of.
Next was the wall that stood a good quarter-meter higher than the one at Camp Mirage, and although she tried her darndest to get up and over that damn thing, Annie finally had to take Winters' advice and go around when Sobel wasn't looking.
And just when Easy Company didn't think it could get any worse, they were forced to crawl under barbed wire, through mud and pig guts, in full gear, with their rifles in hand.
When the last training exercise had come to an end and the men and women of Easy Company believed they were done for the day, Sobel informed them that he had other plans. Ushering the company back over to the obstacle course, Sobel had them line up before speaking. "Private Winslow, please step forward," he ordered.
Swallowing hard, Annie stepped forward out of line as she was told. She had no idea what was about to happen, but she did know that whatever it was, she was not going to like it.
"Private Winslow believes she can get away with slacking off around here." Sobel stood still with his arms behind his back. "She thinks she can go ahead and skip the wall in the obstacle course because it's hard. But here in Easy Company, we do not simply give up because something is hard, do we?"
"No, sir," the company answered. Winters felt a tinge of guilt run through him, knowing full well it was he who had allowed the girl to go around the wall instead of over it.
Sobel turned and gestured to the obstacle course. "Thanks to Private Winslow's laziness, we will all wait here until she completes the obstacle course completely, from start to finish. Every time she fails to climb up and over the wall, she will start again from the beginning. Winslow, go to the start of the course."
With her head hung low, Annie avoided eye contact with her company as she moved to the ropes, which signified the beginning of the course. Reaching for his whistle, Sobel brought the metal object towards his mouth, but before he blew it, he paused. "Oh, and one more thing," he added, turning back to the rest of the company. "If you all thought you were going to stand there idly and watch, you are mistaken. This is a company. When one of you fails, you all fail! Each and every one of you will drop and do push-ups until Private Winslow completes the course."
There were quiet groans from quite a few of the men, but when Sobel blew the whistle, every last one of them dropped and began doing push-ups without so much as an out of place breath.
Annie's heart pounded hard against her chest as she high-stepped through the ropes. Managing to avoid tripping, she moved on to the wooden chutes. Standing up after the somersault, Annie eyed the intimidating wall in front of her. She ran as fast as she could and jumped as high as she could manage, but her hands were still inches away from the top and she fell back down to the ground.
"Again!" Sobel blew into his whistle, his eyes scanning the rows of Easy Company to make sure no one was slacking with their push-ups.
Annie went through the course over and over. Ropes, chute, wall, fall, start again. By the fourth time, the men of Easy were beginning to voice their frustration and exhaustion. "Just climb the damn wall!" Alex Penkala groaned.
While half of the company began berating the girl, others like Winters, Martin, Margot, and Lipton stayed silent. They felt bad for the girl. It wasn't her fault she was too small to reach the top of the wall.
"Move it, Winslow!" Sobel screamed at the girl as she jogged past him on her way to restart the course for the fifth time. "Look at Private Kessler, Winslow! Look how tired she is! You're letting down your fellow woman! You're letting down your fellow women all over the country!"
That comment was the straw that broke the camel's back for Margot. With shaking arms as she lowered herself down for yet another push-up, she called out loud enough for the entire camp to hear: "You can do it, Annie! We believe in you!"
The men didn't exactly join Margot in offering the small blonde words of encouragement, but after her outburst, they did stop yelling insults and other negative things at the poor girl. "She's not going to be able to climb the wall when she's worried about how much she's letting us down," Margot snapped at the men around her. "Cheer her on and she'll make it. Trust me."
As Annie's feet stepped over the last rope, she heard something that made her do a double-take. Instead of being yelled at by the men of the company she was ... being cheered on?
"You can do it!" Winters was the first to voice his encouragement.
"Yeah!" Luz panted, his arms weak. "Show that wall who's boss!"
Before long the entire company was shouting words of positivity, eyes watching carefully as Annie approached the wall for the fifth, and hopefully, final time.
Drawing in a deep breath, Annie ran as fast as she could—so fast that many of the men thought she was going to run right into the wall. Then, at the last moment, she pushed off the ground with all of her might. The small girl sprung upwards, and finally, her hands grabbed onto the top of the wall.
The company let out a series of cheers as the girl used her legs to climb the rest of the way up to the top. With adrenaline coursing through her like crazy, Annie jumped down from the wall and completed the rest of the course without a single mistake. When she finally crossed the finish line, the rows of Easy Company flopped down onto their stomachs, their arms sore and breathing heavy.
"Hell yeah!" Annie shouted for everyone to hear as she turned and faced the wall again, promptly flipping it off with a smile wider than anyone had ever seen before.
Standing up as the men let out airy laughs at the blonde's excitement, Margot walked over to Annie and hugged her tight. "I knew you could do it," she told the smaller girl, her chin resting on the top of Annie's head. "You just have to believe in yourself."
Annie smiled as she was released from the comforting hug. Glancing past Margot at the group of men who were flashing her a thumbs-up and praising her for her performance, she sighed. "It also helps when other people believe in you, too."
●●●
With the following days, Annie's performance improved so drastically that Colonel Sink had thought for a brief moment that he had been receiving doctored reports. Just like at Camp Mirage, the smaller woman blew everyone away with just how fast she could excel when she believed in herself.
After seeing for himself that the young woman was beginning to hold her own among the men, Colonel Sink pushed the thought of dropping her from the program out of his head completely and began thinking about which position to assign her. With the helpful advice of Richard Winters and Lewis Nixon, and not so helpful advice from Herbert Sobel, he quickly ruled out the more physically demanding jobs seeing as no matter how hard Annie worked, she couldn't change the fact that she was, and would always be, small.
Allowing himself a few more days of contemplation, Colonel Sink finally decided to send Private Winslow to train with the medics for a day and see how she fared. The results were nothing less than promising.
Annie, unlike all the other training exercises at Camp Toccoa, picked up on the basics of being a medic in no time at all. The girl was surprisingly calm under that sort of pressure—the pressure of having someone else's life depending on you. She was also quick with her hands and good at problem-solving.
The other Easy Medics, Eugene Roe and Ralph Spina, vouched for the girl after her day with them, stating that they believed she would make an excellent medic. So, with his mind firmly made up, Colonel Sink assigned Annie as a medic, which she was ecstatic about.
As for the rest of Easy Company, the men slowly began to ease off on teasing Annie. When they often found the two women together, they would invite them both to join their table at mealtimes or group when playing a round of cards.
Somehow, Sobel had been promoted to Captain, which was a decision that no one could really fully comprehend; but Winters had also been promoted to 1st Lieutenant, so not all hope was lost.
All in all, things were looking up for the women—and more specifically, Annie—of Easy Company.