Toy Soldier » Band of Brothers

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝟷𝟺

𝙽𝙾𝚅𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝚁, 𝟷𝟿𝟺𝟹

Unfortunately, the joy of embarrassing Sobel was short lived. 

After their CO got over his shame, he quickly came to the realization that with Major Horton on leave, he could finally hone in on the true target of his insecurities. 

At 1100 hours on October 30th, Lieutenant Colonel Strayer was scheduled to inspect E Company. Sobel gave Lieutenant Winters orders to inspect the latrine at 1000 hours. A few minutes later, at about 0930 hours, Lieutenant Colonel Strayer told Winters to censor the enlisted men's mail. 

That was a job that could not be done at headquarters, so Winters hopped on his bicycle and rode to his quarters, a small room in a private home in Aldbourne. Promptly, at 1000 hours he returned, parked his bicycle outside the barracks, and entered to inspect the latrine. 

Instead, he was greeted by Sobel, already making his own inspection. He walked past Winters, giving no indication that he saw his XO, with an unhappy and dirty Private Melo, carrying a mop, following behind him. 

At 1045 hours Winters was preparing for company formation in the orderly room, when a 1st Sergeant Evans handed him a typed document with a hint of a smirk on his face.

Word got around rather quickly that Winters accepted trial by court martial. And while everyone commended their XO for standing up to Sobel, the situation posed a problem to 2nd Battalion staff who desperately leafed through the court-martial manual and studied it intensively to try to figure out some way to get out from under this embarrassment. 

However, Strayer beat them to it, declaring the case closed— no  court-martial. 

But Sobel was not finished. He quickly followed up with another typed order questioning Winters failure to instruct Private Melo in his duties as latrine orderly.

Finally, Strayer decided, for the good of Easy company, to transfer Winters out of Easy. Instead, he was made battalion mess officer.

With Winters gone, Sobel was still in charge, and with combat coming, the NCOs were in uproar. And so Tommy and Sergeant Ranney called a meeting.

"We lost Winters to battalion mess." Tommy snapped, throwing her starched flight cap down on the small table set up in one of the barns that served as a meeting spot for the NCOs. 

"You're shittin' me."

Tommy shook her head, not even glancing at Talbert, "No. Strayer did it while they try to figure out the procedures for his court martial."

"Well, Nixon better find a loophole." 

Harris shook his head at Talberts word, "And if he don't? Winters scrambles eggs while the rest of us make the big jump with Sobel."

The three sat down at the wonky table, joining the other NCO's and sipping at the bitter coffee from their tin cups. There was a moment of silence when everyone considered their options. 

"Not me." Guarnere drawled, breathing out a cloud of smoke. 

"So we're going through with this, right?"

Tommy bit her lip, before glancing up from the pattern of woodgrain her eyes had been tracking, "We gotta do somethin'."

"Yeah." Grant agreed.

With the exception of Evans and one or two others, all the NCOs in E Company attended. Sergeant Lipton glanced around the group, "Alright. Good." he nodded, making sure to look every single man straight in the eye, "But we'd all better be clear of the consequences."