Bill Guarnere
From Hearts and Minds
| Bill Guarnere | |
|---|---|
| |
| Arrival date: | June 2009 |
| Age/Birthdate: | 21 years old/April 28, 1922 |
| OOC Information | |
| Portrayed by: | Frank John Hughes |
| Journal: | You Ain't Gotta Eat It |
| Tag: | Bill Guarnere |
| Player: | Kir |
| In the Village | |
| Room Number: | 101 |
| Job: | Manager of The Waffle Place |
Contents |
Background
Bill was born in April of 1922 in South Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the youngest of ten children, to Augusta and Joseph Guarnere. Joseph worked from home as a full time tailor while Augusta raised the children. Being the youngest of ten, Bill learned early on in life how to use his age and status in the household as the baby to get what he wanted, often resorting to crying fits when he didn't get his way. While he got along with his sisters, the relationships forged with his brothers had materialized in the form of a ridiculously large amount of tough love, roughhousing and making each other's lives a living hell. His childhood, siblings, and the outlook on a poverty-stricken life where most of the time there wasn't enough food to go around, taught him how to take care of himself and toughen up along the way. It wasn't too many years down the road until he could hold his own against most of his brothers.
In 1937 during the Depression, the United States Government created a program called the Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTC) to help keep boys off the street and get them involved in something productive aka the Army. Augusta, wanting Bill to have the opportunity to be properly clothed, fed, and housed, signed her son up, telling the officials that Bill was seventeen when in reality he was only fifteen. Upon his acceptance into the program, Bill spent the next three summers in Maryland at Fort Meade, the program taking an average of four years to complete. Upon completion, Bill would've had the opportunity to enlist in the Army's officer training program. Sadly, the CMTC was canceled after his third year due to the pending war in Europe.
Six months from graduating high school, Pearl Harbor was attacked and shortly thereafter Bill had his heart set on dropping out and finding work at Baldwin Locomotive Works, making Sherman tanks for the Army. After being begged by his mother to be the first in their family to get a high school degree, Bill hung in there and graduated high school, still having the opportunity to get the job at Baldwin Locomotive that he had wanted.
In 1942, Bill decided to sign up for the Marines. At the recruiting station, he saw a large poster advertising a new division of the Army called the Paratroopers. Knowing that the mortality rate was high as well as the division untested (who'd be crazy enough to jump out of planes into enemy fire??), Bill's curiosity got the better of him (as well as the extra $50 a month), and signed up, figuring that having the "best of the best" fighting by his side and watching his back was his best bet for survival.
Less than a week later, Bill gave his longtime girlfriend, Frances Peca, an engagement ring, promising that when he came back from wherever he was going, that he’d make an honest woman out of her. In return, Frances gave Bill a picture of her wearing a grass skirt, which he keeps on him at all times. Later that year, he was shipped off to Camp Toombs in Georgia to take part in training with what would soon be called the aptly named Easy Company, where he would get the chance to jump into Normandy on D-Day and fight in World War II.
Personality
Bill is like any Philly boy in that his main concerns gravitate around his family, country and where he grew up. His short and wiry stature along with having to deal with six brothers, has made him prone to starting arguments, fist fights, and cursing wars in an attempt to prove himself time and time again, along with a "fuck you" attitude and a large chip on his shoulder. This mixture could and has gotten "Wild Bill" into trouble with ranking officers and peers alike, having seen his fair share of latrine duty and runs up Currahee. He uses excessively bad grammar, using his tongue and jaw to accentuate his Mid-Atlantic accent and lisp. Moderately foul mouthed, Bill basically says whatever he wants to whoever he wants to except (sometimes) in regards to higher ranking officers. To people not in his good graces or just newly acquainted, he can seem rather abrasive, racist, foul, and just downright nasty. The majority of the people who have actually gotten the guts up to fight fire with fire and get to know him, realize that deep down, Bill has a heart of gold and would go to any lengths to help any one of the men in Easy Company.
Lesson
Bill’s hatred for the Germans started when he found out his eldest brother, Henry, was killed during the Italian Campaign at Monte Cassino. The months that followed proved that while Bill was more than capable of making decisions on the battlefield as the leader of the 506’s 2nd Battalion mortar squad, the personal injustice from losing one of his closest brothers was festering deep inside of him, blossoming into something brutal and terrifying. When he was hit during the Battle of the Bulge, losing his right leg, Bill was taken off the line. While being carried out on a stretcher, he lost consciousness and when he woke up, he was in Haurvatat, leg intact. Bill needs to learn the concept of inner peace, something he might have had a hold on before the war, but quickly lost soon after jumping on D-Day.
Currently
Arriving in Haurvatat just after having lost his leg in the Ardennes' Forest, Bill woke up in the stables. After not being eaten by horses, he managed to acclimate himself to Haurvatat and his intact leg, having a reunion of sorts with a few of his pals from the 101st. Bill met Sarah Mann one evening and ran into Babe Heffron down at the local bar.
At the Fourth of July picnic event, Bill met Ziggy Green and had a hotdog and beer, celebrating independence and freedom. Days later, Bill applied for a job at the Waffle House under the management of Eric Taylor, nailing the position of cook. Three days after that, Bill was one of the countless victims of the Polywater outbreak, and found himself stone drunk at The In & Out Bar under the tempting gaze of the Goddess Aphrodite. On his way back to the hotel that night, Bill ran into Sarah and kissed her before going into his hotel room and falling unconscious onto the nearest surface. Early that morning, he found himself outside the hotel and waist deep in the village lake, there he met Neri and had a drunken tryst with Effy Stonem before wandering off. A few days later, guilty as ever at what he had done to Sarah, Bill invited her for a waffle and an apology, which she readily accepted.
Bill was there for the arrival of Sonya Blade, helping her out and navigate the village as best he could.
A good Catholic boy, Bill visited the village church and talking with Father Sam Panda, was able to come to terms with his inner turmoil at being so lucky as to not be in the war and still have his leg.
Meeting up finally with Buck Compton right outside the hotel, Bill saw first hand just how tore up Buck is over the war and what he saw. Days later, while at work, Bill had his first encounter with a German from his time and refused to serve the man, this lead of course to a proper scolding by Eric.
Bill saw the arrival of his good friend Carwood Lipton as the man appeared behind the bookstore and was able to show him the ropes of the village easily.
The last time Bill saw Eric, he was having issues deciding what to do about Sarah. Thankfully, with some Boss-talk he figured out that the girl he truly loved was Frannie, even if she was back home in Philly on Earth, and that there was absolutely no reason why Sarah and him couldn't be simply friends.
