I heard the impacts this morning.

I wasn’t too sure what it was. I lay in my bed, hearing it again, “BOOM!” It wasn’t too loud, almost faint. The walls of my trailer shook. What the hell is that? A few minutes went by, “BOOM!” Alright there it was again? What could it be? I’ve been an FO almost my whole entire military career so I should know if it’s an impact. It sounds like one but I can’t really tell. They were happening every few minutes and the last one sounded close. Maybe I should go outside and check it out. So, I get out of my bed, put on my flip-flops, and go around back. No one outside was wearing any Kevlar. Maybe it’s nothing. I waited for a few minutes; I knew another one would have to come. I just hoped that it didn’t happen too close. Nothing. Nothing happened. So I went back inside and got dressed.

Today was supposed to be our day off. Well, guess what? It never happened. It wasn’t too bad. The only thing we had to do today was go through inventory. We were missing a few things, but nothing too important. It also gave me a chance to go through our vehicle and see what we had in there. We cleaned out and organized everything. I guess it’s better to do it now than in the summer when it’s going to be hot.

We did manage to hook up the intercom system in our vehicle. When we were handed the HMMWV our headsets were in fair condition. The driver’s headset had problems with the elastic headband, it was worn out. My headset was fine, except for the fact that it disappeared the other day when we had a passenger. So, it sucked for a few days when I couldn’t communicate with the other crewmembers. The third headset was completely broken. The microphone didn’t work at all. Well, T-Rex hooked it up. He bought a cellular phone earpiece and spliced the wires to connect them together. It worked. He rigged it.

So he gave me his headset and I switched out the elastic band that was worn out on that thing with some that we found on the ground the other day. It worked fine for me. My headset was rigged and ready to go. I can’t wait to test it out. I managed to make a few modifications too.

Well, I found out what that sound was this morning. I heard that it was mortar fire. It’s didn’t surprise me. I’ve heard that sound before, I should’ve known. At least it wasn’t too close. I’ve had too close before and it wasn’t enemy.