Macurdy and Netzloff left then. Beyond telling him what squad he’d be in, the lieutenant didn’t say much except: “There’s two or three in the squad who might be a little sour about you ranking them without having the training and experience they have. But Lieutenant D’Emilio says you’ve got a knack for handling things, and his men like and respect you. So the captain and I are trusting you to handle any objections your new squad might have. Now, let’s go find Sergeant Ruiz. He’s your platoon sergeant.”
Staff Sergeant Ramon Ruiz was as large as Macurdy, and looked as strong, a calm direct man who neither in words, face, or aura showed any resentment toward this relative greenhorn coming into his platoon as a noncom. “Where you from, Macurdy?” he asked.
“Nehtaka, Oregon.”
“A westerner! I’m from a ranch near Penasco, New Mexico. What’d you do before you joined up?”
“I was a deputy sheriff.” Then, in case this sergeant had reservations about lawmen, Macurdy added, “Before that I logged.”
“A deputy sheriff? How come the army didn’t put you in the MPs?”
Macurdy grinned. “I sure don’t know. I speak pretty good German, too; I’m surprised they didn’t send me to the Pacific.” The sergeant grunted. “Speak German? You don’ have a German name.”
“I married into a German family, and my wife and I lived with them. The grandmother didn’t speak any English, so they all talked German in the house, and I had to learn it.”
This sharpened Ruiz’s interest. “What do they think of you fighting the Germans?”
“They think of it as fighting Nazis. The whole family hates Hitler, especially the old lady. She says he’ll be the ruin of Germany.”
“She got that right. Well, it’s a good thing to have another guy in the platoon that speaks German. A guy named Mueller speaks it, too; he’s from North Dakota.” Ruiz got to his feet. “Come on. Al. introduce you to Sergeant Powers. He’s your squad leader.”
The battalion had read and heard about the disastrous crosschannel Dieppe raid by seven thousand commandos, a few weeks earlier. And eager though they were to see action, the debacle at Dieppe was sobering. Even elite units could come to grief in an operation sufficiently ill-conceived.
One day they were visited and inspected in ranks by the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who paused to ask questions of the men. Macurdy was as impressed by her aura as by her height, and she was taller than most of the troopers.
Meanwhile Mary had written that she was pregnant. Curtis didn’t much fret about it; he was remarkably focused on where he was and what he was doing. Which helped him get another quick promotion to buck sergeant, replacing a squad leader who’d broken a collarbone.
Shortly afterward, the men were put on restriction and briefed on their upcoming operation, until th knew their drop zone and missions about as well as they coup considering they still didn’t know where in the world that drop zone was.
Not that they’d drop there, or carry out that mission-a remarkable set of snafus would intervene-but they’d make themselves valuable regardless, on the ground and in the evolution of new warfare.
Finally they were loaded onto trains and taken to Land’s End, in the extreme southwest of England.
As it turned out, Macurdy had no problems at all in his new squad. It already knew of him by reputation; he was a man people noticed.
As summer waned into autumn, their officers were briefed on what was to be the battalion’s-and the Army’s-first airborne operation. And although for some weeks the troopers were not told what was up, training intensified, carrying now a sense of urgency.
They were made familiar with French arms and equipment, which to some suggested a raid into German-occupied France.
15
Snafu in the Desert
On November 4, 1942, 2nd Battalion of the 503 Parachute Infantry Regiment was put on a train. They’d removed their unit patches. Their equipment, even their jump boots and jump suits, was sent separately; no one was to know they were paratroopers.
Their route was indirect, and of course they spent a lot of time waiting. On November 7 they arrived at two small airfields in the southwesternmost corner of England, Lands End There they learned what their mission actually was, and what the circumstances were. In small groups, again to be inconspicuous, thirty-nine twin-engined C47 transports arrived, to fly them to French-ruled Algeria, in North Africa.