I wrote this on request from an associate of mine, the one and only Krauskerooni.

The sun was shining, the birds were flying, and the clouds were scattering above the scorching Earth. Above the olive trees and french mountains, one soldier could do nothing but fall. In all other circumstances, what would be a beautiful day has been turned astray by the ravages of conflict and the lust of war. Even as the relative safety of the plane from which he had jumped faded into the distance, the ground looked so much more lethal from the perspective of terminal velocity. This man was a Paratrooper of the 101st Airborne, known only as 1LT Benjamin Krausk, or as some of the lads called him, Krausky-boy.
The approaching ground made his memory all the more fleeting. The olive trees and bits of crisp snow grew ever closer, ever larger, ever sharper. The other paratroopers were powerless to help him, as they had already deployed their chutes and were being cut apart by savage cannon fire. Yet there was one who could, one above all the others in glory and grit. Krausk knew him as Winters, Captain Lewis Winters.
Their last moment together was only minutes prior. Krausk was a quiet one, one that Winters respected when the others did not. Even though Winters was indeed the commanding officer of the 101st Airborne's 69th platoon, the others never saw Krausk as anything but that quiet one with possible sympathies to the enemy. After all, his whole family was German and they only immigrated to America right after the First World War. Winters saw something different... for he sees fortitude... even in a man who forgot his chute on the way out the door, thinking that the special pack on his back was the chute itself.

Krausk was about to accept his death of slamming into the earth. A fast way to go, but certainly not the most painless. Yet one other grabbed him by the hand, none other than Captain Winters himself! "I've got you pal!" he said as he held his hand and then activated his reserve chute with the other. Little more could be said as the chute saved both from certain death, although a rogue strap hit Winters below the belt in a way not a lot of things outside of fantasies could. The rushing winds had deafened Krausk to the point where he didn't hear his commanding officer's saucy moan.
Both of them landed soon enough, although Krausk was the only one who could stand. Winters collapsed, on his knees, and then on his side as the torrent pain became truly known to him. The strap had cut off circulation in that below-the-belt region, resulting in a brutal case of frozen nuts. They were driven off course from the rest of the platoon, so there was only one man who could help him with that one. "Krausky-boy... I need help." He moaned. Krausk rushed over and had nothing to say as Winters unzipped his pants. "I've got frozen balls man... I know this sounds wrong and all... but you gotta give them the jiggle."

"No. That's so gay!" Krausk yelled at the top of his lungs, a bad move at the time. Winters reached a hand out, longing for his comrade's sweaty hands. "I'm ordering you to give me your hands! I need a jiggle man, I just saved your life!"

Krausk shook his head. "No. I wanted to die you dumb***!" With that, Krausk took off his pack and revealed the special weapon, a nuclear warhead. "I'm not doing that man!" He said as he held the nuke in his hands.

"Son, that's how we were supposed to win the war! We were supposed to bring it to Berlin!"

"No. This is how I win my life!"

With that, and with German SS death squads zooming onto the scene, Krausk set the timer and ran into the bushes and olive trees. He ran away, leaving his old life behind for a new beginning away from the force, away from the Airborne, away from Winters and the gang, and towards greener pastures yet unknown. With an orange sky and a mushroom cloud on his six, he looked forward to something better yet unseen, far in the distance... who only came into view as Krausk ran fresh out of breath. A silent man, one strong without words, a scientist.

Krausk looked him in the eyes, and said only two words. "Mister Freemaaaan."