The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

➢ hazel parker

" you are more powerful than you know; you are beautiful just as you are."

- melissa etheridge

***

Hazel Parker was a quiet girl, but mostly everyone knew that. Since her arrival in the Women's Army Corps in February of 1942, Hazel had met many other girls with similar ambitions of why they were here, fighting for a cause that only men were portrayed to fight. 

The women of the WAC were organized under the 6888th Central Postal Battalion and commanded by Major Charity Adams. 

Hazel wasn't sure what she was thinking when she signed up for the WAC. She was from the little town of Pigeon Forge in Tennessee. A tiny town with barely an ounce of action. Mostly everyone in the town knew of Hazel getting accepted into the Women's Army Corps. 

Something she used to always admire from the little town was how the mist of the morning would gently make its way across the trees, just as the sun rose. When the sun rose, the sky changed to a multitude of colors from blues to purples to reds and oranges and yellows. The mountains always represented the struggle she felt she always had to get through to get to some sort of peace. The hikes always lead her to the top, even through the obstacles that it took to reach the top. She could then just look up at the beautiful sky and get some sense of calmness that she was missing. She missed being home with her mother, Lena Parker. 

Lena Parker had been through quite a lot in her life, and the struggles of her daughter had been a rather tough time period, but she was a loving and caring mother who only wanted the best for her daughter. She was one of the reasons Hazel was here. 

Her father had been a hunter, working throughout the Blue Mountains. 

But now he was gone. 

Her father had left the home on Christmas when she was 9, when she hadn't known what was really going on with her father. He had left her mother and her alone, and now 9 years later, Christmas never really was the same afterwards. She remembered her father coming home drunk on Christmas, going off about the stock market and the Great Depression. About 4 years had passed since the occurrence of Black Tuesday, and their family was still struggling, so her father increasingly got drunk to forget about it as well as the family he had to help. It had been the talk of the small town for years after and now people still talked about it consistently because there was nothing else to talk about even though it was almost a decade ago. Now, with Roosevelt having brought America out of the Depression and into the Second World War, it had died down a bit, but there were times when it was brought up. 

It was part of the reason Hazel was doing what she was doing, to escape that town. 

Her mother had been the one to tell her to sign up for the WAC. Hazel knew how to fire a weapon, one with and without a scope and she could easily strip a weapon and build it up again. All things her father had taught her. But now he wasn't here. 

It had been her and her mother for years, so Lena sending off her daughter was something big, but in a time of war, she knew it was what her daughter needed to do. It was something where Hazel felt she could find women that related to her and what she wanted to do. 

Hazel had always felt so lost back home. She struggled with trusting people. Trust had always been an issue with her ever since her dad had left, but it was something she was learning to cope with. Her mother was one of the only people she really trusted herself to be with and talk to and she wasn't a huge fan of not entirely trusting others but she'd done it for so long it was habitual. Going into a form of military would hopefully help her, she felt. 

So soon enough Hazel was on the first train ride out to Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School in Iowa. When Hazel arrived she was fitted for uniforms, interviewed, assigned to a company and barracks and inoculated against disease. Hazel was a bit more on the quieter side compared to the other women she had been put into barracks with. 

Sure, they were friendly to her, they were all here for the same thing, but Hazel found it hard to make friends with them. But that was because her level of trust was never reached. All through training, the girls performed sprints and runs and jump tactics, as well as firing a weapon which wasn't allowed anywhere besides there. There were days and weeks filled with PT before lectures began and slowly filled up the schedule. 

She trained up until May 1942, where they then received induction and Haze was technically a Corporal, but in the WAC was called a Junior Leader. She carried a side arm almost all the time now, even though it wasn't for much use, but it was the best the women could've gotten at being close to some sort of weapon. 

Hazel had been sitting in her barracks in a group of women she had trained with when the word came. The US Military was looking for women to participate in training that would get them up to the front lines. Women from all walks of life would be accepted, but the thing that many women were surprised about was that it would be a secret, hidden from the public. 

All the girls in Hazel's barrack signed up, quickly rushing through applications to get them sent in quickly for examination. 

Hazel was one of the last to submit hers, she usually took up until the last minute to make sure got everything she wanted right on things. She was like that way on tests as well. She filled out all the information as she could and gave a vivid description of how she could attack a weapon on her part. 

It was in late May when the only letter delivered to her barrack came straight to her. Hazel opened it up, with all the women's eyes around her, eager to see what the letter had to say.

Corporal Hazel Parker,

We are pleased to inform you that you've been selected as a part of the program to send women to the front lines. As you know, this will not be seen in the eyes of the public and all of this will occur in secret. Even though, in the government's eyes this is rather controversial, some believe this will be a success while others believe it will be a failure. You are part of the lucky 250 women who have been selected to be taken to the front lines and to fight alongside men for the greater good. You will be sent to into the Airborne, attached to the United States Army. The Airborne is a new section of the military where you will drop behind enemy lines, parachuting in and hopefully creating diversion for lands troops to come in. Colonel Sink is the commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment attached to the 101st Airborne Division. You will be placed into 2nd Battalion, Easy Company. Your rank will remain as you are, a Corporal and from your detailed resume, you will enact yourself as a sniper or sharpshooter. You will train with the 250 women picked for this operation and then will be given further information after about where you will be stationed. The rules are that you do not tell anyone outside of your immediate family what you are doing and that you report straight to your sight of training. Fort Bragg in North Carolina will be your sight of training. Thank you for your interest in the program.

Sincerely,

The United States War Department

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thanks for reading!

hey yall, going back through and updating these as well. there were some tweaks i needed to make and some more info i needed to add to the context. 

thanks! <3