Our first Humvee accident.

Today was pretty smooth. We even finished the day earlier than we usually do. I was happy about having more time off this evening. That was until we were told that we were going to be doing some drivers training at night. Great! The times for the drivers training kept changing as well. First it was 1830 then it changed to 1900. Didn’t surprise me.

The course was a driver’s course that is here on the FOB. It’s a makeshift course with mud, obstacles, and all sorts of other stuff. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to go since I’m not a driver but every driver had to have a TC, so I guess that was me. I think T-Rex and me had the advantage over the other teams since we had an intercom hook-up in our Humvee. We’re one of the fortunate few. So all I would have to do is jump up into the gunners hatch and navigate him around any obstacles from there. The field of view from inside a Humvee is terrible. You can’t see shit. I have a much better view from up top plus I’m able to view 360°.

So T-Rex and me did fine, making it through the course with no problems. Since it was dark we had to use our NODs and go tactical, without headlights or any lights for that matter. It was a little hard for me to make the terrain out but nothing like I haven’t been through before. It tested both of our skills and working together as a team. I thought we did pretty well. T-Rex drove without getting stuck in the mud or hitting any barriers like some of the other teams did. I’m pretty sure we were one of the few teams to go through without any incidents. Except for one.

This was not our fault. While waiting on a trail for a Humvee in front of us to move out, a Humvee hit us along our rear right side. We weren’t even moving. We were just parked there, waiting for the Humvee in front of us to move. Well, I guess this Humvee on our right side was backing up when it hit us. They had a ground guide out there so I can’t understand how it happened. It’s just like the guy kept backing and backing up, until we got hit. We were fine. T-Rex asked, “Did someone hit us?” That’s when I looked over to the side and noticed that the Humvee was backed up right into us. Great!

We got out and checked out the damage. There wasn’t much there so it doesn’t look too bad. That’s a good thing. At least we won’t have to do a report and we won’t hear from the commander. And T-Rex had mentioned if he would need his insurance card before we started! One of the guys had told him yeah at the time. I agreed!