June 5, 1944

It's on June 5, 1944, the evening hours, about 5:30. You pack up next to Smoky and Nielson. The parachute, reserve chute, M1 Garand, lucky hunting knife, three days of rations, three days of water, multiple cartons of cigarettes, ammo, more ammo, and some ammo.

The C-47 Dakotas are spooling up, you guess there is no false start this time (the bet money went to Penkala who was able to get you on the plane with Winters and not Mien). The air sickness medication kicks in and you fall asleep.

Because you are the fifteenth person in the C-47, you are the closest to the pilots and furthest from the door. You are awakened by the crackle of the pilots radio as a garbled transmission comes in:

"Repea---eavy fi it---not mak-ng--ound-col"

As you look at the pilots, they look at each other, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they are scared. The red light flashes in the bay and you can see Winters giving commands at the front of the plane. You stand and wait for what seems like eternity. Five minutes later the green light flashes and you shuffle out the door. As you and Nielson, the last two troopers try to jump out, an errant 88mm shell smashes into the middle of the plane and rips a 10 foot gap in the left side. You can feel Nielson start to be sucked out of the gap, pulling you with him. You have two choices:

Kick Nielson out the Front (Hopefully saving his life and you get sucked out the side)

Cut the rope that you both are hooked on to jump (Hopefully getting both of you sucked out the front instead)