" Every day is a new beginning. Take a deep breath, smile, and start again."

- Unknown

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When their final day of training arrived, it seemed everyone was ready for it to be over, all over it, the 5 mile run past the Noyo River and up Gibson's Cliff, the mud runs, the colorless food. Everyone was excited to get that graduation rank and then finally move to their specialties, especially that of the 20 women heading off to become part of the Airborne.

Catherine was eagerly talking about it at lunch that day as Lizzie read off the flyer that the men they'd be training with after this had initially read in the first place. Hazel sat by quietly listening to them talk about it and such but Hazel was just excited about the fact they'd made it this far and were going to be graduating with high marks for 250 women.

Operation Virago had been given their own uniforms, however similar to the ones of Army wear as Camp Athene was connected to Fort Bragg an Army Fort.

Each woman had a camp with the symbol of Athena on it to represent Operation Virago, and their uniforms were a dark, deep brown almost like dark chocolate where they had sewn on their ranks to the side as well as the symbol on their arms of Virago, which was a few with silhouetted symbols that the rumors called by the men, the Amazon Warriors. They were skirts, with a bit lighter brown color of a belt, with dark brown Oxfords.

As the women got ready on that Saturday in November, Hazel couldn't help but feel an ounce of pride swarm her stomach as she slowly adjusted her cap onto her head comfortably, looking in the mirror.

She had made it.

The large room the 250 women were in, in their 3 platoons, was large, with bright lights and pictures of past Commanders like that of Ridgway hanging on the walls as well as pictures of platoons and companies and of the Fort Bragg itself. Thermes stood, saluting Ridgway in front of him as Ridgway entered with a seemingly proud smile upon his face, Sergeant Sweeney at his side.

" Sir." Thermes said saluting Ridgway.

" Captain Thermes." Ridgway said saluting the man with a proud smile upon his features. Ridgway dropped his salute and Thermes followed as he turned and walked with Thermes forward to where the 3 Lieutenants and Loughty were.

" Ladies." Ridgway called as silence filtered out of the room, his voice bouncing off of all the walls, " I am proud to be standing here now, looking at all 250 of you who made it through this training. I am proud to officially have been part of this Operation. Operation Virago. And I'm proud that you all took this training as seriously as you all did, for the greater good. You've all earned a spot in the United States military and you've all earned your ranks. This training wasn't easy, it was meant to break you and then build you back up again, before you continued. It was meant to make your brain truly think about your actions and keep you focused on your task. To train your mind to remember even the littlest things, keep distractions out of your line of sight and even remember that crooked pillow." Hazel felt her heart swell.

" You've all marked your place on this world, as the first members of Operation Virago and women in the United States military." Ridgway said, " And you all deserve to continue on into your respective branches and complete the final parts of your specialty training. Yes, sir?"

" Yes, sir!" Ridgway smiled proudly.

" As you all know, this graduation will consist of finality within your ranks as a member of Virago Company, as well as the medal upon the breast of being a member of Camp Athene officially." Ridgway said and then nodded to Sweeney who brought out 2 plaques of 250 medals. Ridgway went around himself, giving every man and woman in that room a medal for being a part of this operation. It was a very special moment of this large facility. Everyone could feel it. As Ridgway stopped in front of Hazel with Sweeney at his side, holding out the Camp Athene medal, Hazel's heart swelled with pride and she couldn't keep the smile from her features as Ridgway smiled at her.

" Congratulations Corporal Parker." Ridgway said as she shook his hand.

" Thank you, sir." Hazel said and Ridgway smiled proudly at her. Hazel felt even more pride; it had been a fatherly look, something she'd been deprived of. She felt proud standing here right now. She needed that.

That evening, with the thoughts of graduation and finality on their minds, the women were allowed to head out to the PX bar that remained in Fort Bragg. Barbara had given a warning, there would be men there, curious men, wondering about their training, a bunch of guys. They suspected so, the other parts of the 82nd were close to finishing their training at the current moment.

" It's been a hot minute since I had a drink." Catherine said as she ran a hand through her hair glancing at Lizzie and Hazel beside her side.

" I can't drink." Hazel admitted with a tiny smile.

" You can take a sip of mine," Catherine offered, as Lizzie looked at Hazel with a grin.

" Or I'm pretty sure there will be some paratrooper up there waiting to buy you one." Lizzie said, and Catherine smirked.

" Yeah, right," Catherine said as the trio giggled together.

The group arrived at the loud PX bar, which was booming with night life, as well as people pouring in and out, music and smells wafting from the sight. The trio headed inside, and looked around at the life inside. There were 82nd men and Special Forces swarming the place, as well as members from Virago.

" You two wanna grab a table?" Catherine said turning to the two, " I'll get drinks."

" Sure, I'll just take a Coke, can't drink yet." Lizzie said with a smile.

" I'll take a Coke as well." Hazel said with a gentle smile and Catherine nodded.

" Great, I'll be back." Catherine said before wadding through the crowd. Hazel and Lizzie found a table, and sat down in relief amongst the chatter around them.

" I've been reading some of the articles about the training of the 101st." Lizzie said leaning forward in her chair and looking at Hazel.

" Really?" Hazel asked. Lizzie nodded with an innocent smile.

" It seems they've been training since August like us, but they're jumps are going to end up later on than ours will." Lizzie explained.

" Still no word on when we'll finally be transferred to their unit?" Hazel asked her. Lizzie shook her head.

" No word, possibly within the next year I'm hoping, but I can't be so sure." Lizzie exclaimed, sighing.

" Hey, you're part of those Viragos, right?" a voice asked and both Hazel and Lizzie looked up to see 4 men from the 82nd standing by the table, drinks in their hands.

" Yep." Lizzie said with a small smile, nodding her head. Hazel glanced up at them, not entirely too sure what to do or what they wanted.

" What's up?" Lizzie offered, a bit confused as well. 15 weeks of training, the last thing they wanted at the moment was being hit on, they just wanted a night to not be running through snow and mud.

" My friend here was wondering if he could buy you a drink, Little Miss." the main guy said patting his friend on the shoulder and looking at Hazel.

" My friend's already getting me one, but thank you." Hazel said with a soft smile.

" Cute." the guy said before turning to the man by his side, " Get her a drink, something strong." The man nodded before walking away. The main guy turned by.

" I don't drink, I'm not old enough yet." Hazel said defending herself a bit. The man laughed as Lizzie's eyes narrowed.

" Not old enough, honey you're in the military now, you're old enough for anything, even just a drink. Promise you'll like it." he said.

" She doesn't have to drink it. If anything, you've just wasted money." Lizzie said, a bit in her voice.

" Feisty." another man said walking over to Lizzie and sitting beside her. Lizzie just looked away.

" Ignore them, Hazel." Lizzie said softly, and shook her head as Hazel felt her cheeks heat up at the 4 men's stares.

" Come on, you've just trained for 15 weeks and you don't want to talk to a single guy?" the main guy asked.

" Yeah," Lizzie said, "and clearly you weren't a strong as you thought."

" What do you mean, darling?"

" I mean, here you are, hitting on us, when we have no interest. We trained without the aid of any of you guys and we're still here not wanting it. And you still are pining after us. Clearly, you couldn't focus enough like us." Lizzie said defending the two of them. Hazel watched the man to her right staring at Lizzie. He seemed slightly speechless, like he wasn't expecting this.

" Hey," a voice said and the group looked up to see Catherine standing there with 3 drinks in her hands.

" Let me help you." a 3rd guy said standing.

" I'm fine, thanks." Catherine said, retracting the drinks with a slightly disgusted expression.

" What the hell's going on?" Catherine asked, her question directed towards Hazel and Lizzie who looked uncomfortable.

" We're just talking to your friends here, honey." the main guy said.

" I'm not talking to you." Catherine said. Hazel and Lizzie looked so uncomfortable around these men. They wanted nothing to do with them and it was obvious.

" A lady shouldn't curse," the main guy said, as the three women looked at him with suspicious expressions.

" And why's that?" Catherine asked him. The guy just laughed and shook her head as he stared at her.

" C'mon, we're moving tables." Catherine said as she handed the two girls their drinks and made them stand.

" Where ya going? We were just getting settled." the main guy whined.

" To get away from your whiny ass." Catherine said before pointing Hazel and Lizzie away to another table.

" We survived 15 weeks of training, without seeing any of those guys, I could've gone a few weeks more." Catherine said.

" Sorry about that back there, Cath, guys are just sometimes..." Lizzie trailed off, cheeks red.

" Yeah, I get it, let's just go and sit with Barbara and Fernsby." Catherine said as Hazel glanced back over her shoulder with a sigh.

" Hey ladies." Fernsby said as the girls got near.

" You know what's my word of the day? Boundaries." Catherine said as she situated herself into a chair.

" Why's that?" Barbara asked.

" There's a few guys from the 82nd that were overbearing, offering drinks. It was a bit much." Lizzie said with a sigh.

" Well, you all trained for 15 weeks without men really, except for officers and you made it out perfectly fine. Who needs 'em?" Barbara said, sipping her beer. The girls all chuckled together.

" They're just boys, sometimes they need to grow up." Fernsby said shaking her head, " I've learned from my own experience. It was not pretty."

" What happened?" Hazel asked.

" Few of the guys from my hometown, back in San Diego, California, bunch of immature children, but one gave me my first kiss. I was young at the time, like 13 and I didn't know what was going on, so then he declared me his girlfriend." Fernsby said and Barbara glanced at her.

" He really thought that at 13?" she asked. Fernsby nodded.

" He never talked to me after that declaration, so now I don't virtually trust anyone." Fernsby said.

" You got a point though," Catherine said with a small shrug," you can't trust everyone."

Hazel listened quietly, and kept glancing around; she knew exactly what Catherine meant by that point. She never trusted anyone and if she did, it was after quite a long time of knowing each other. It usually always took a while.

The following day, the women had to pack up their things, and start to get ready for moving day for their expanded training. Hazel, Catherine and Lizzie were moving to a smaller based barrack within where the 82nd was, for only about a week or two to do jump training and take their 5 jumps to graduate them to paratroopers officially.

" Well, I guess this is it ladies." Pat said as Hazel, Catherine and Lizzie stood facing her, Lucia and Frannie. Hazel smiled.

" Go show those guys in the 506th what you 3 ladies are made of alright. You trained hard here, and made it. Always remember that." Pat told them.

" Thanks, Pat." Catherine said and Pat smiled.

" We're all doing a good thing, but always remember we are all connected back to Virago Company, always. You'll always have these 250 women behind ya.' Lucia said with a nod and a smile.

" Yeah, and we can always send letters, no matter where you all end up going with the Airborne. Whatever you do though, it'll make a difference." Frannie said, " We'll all make a difference." The women brought each other into warm hugs, holding each other close, before word came that they were to be moved.

They would forever be connected by this shared experience together. The group of 20 women that were to be transported to their barrack, were led out of the gates of Camp Athene, with pride on their shoulders and smiles upon their faces as they did so.

Lieutenant Wilson was the one to lead them to the gates of the 82nd where a man stood inside. Wilson turned to the group of women.

" I wish you luck ladies in the Airborne." Wilson said as he looked at the group of 20 women.

" Thank you, sir." the women chorused out to him. He smiled. He let his arm guide them towards the gates as the women filed for but Hazel held back and looked towards the Lieutenant who had helped her greatly, especially with her weapon.

" Thank you, sir, for all the help you gave me." Hazel said with a small smile up towards him. Wilson smiled at her.

" It was my duty, Corporal." Wilson said with a smile. Hazel saluted him, but instead Lieutenant Wilson held out his hand to shake hers. Hazel quirked a smile at him and then slowly shook his hand.

" Good luck out there Parker," he told her and she smiled with a nod, before stepping back and heading towards the gate where a man stood, to a new chapter of training.

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another chapter! :)

ps. i felt i needed motivation so getting some chapters out quicker and more consistently i feel will help with that :)