The Afternoon From Hell

It wasn’t planned that way. We weren’t supposed to be out all night. Heck, I was planning on getting online and chatting with my wife and boys. I made an appointment. I started wondering to myself what she might have been thinking. Would she be worried? Would she guess that maybe something came up and that I’m busy? Would she be upset? And what about the boys? Would they understand?

We didn’t get back to the pad until 2230 last night. It was so bad we missed dinner chow. There’s no other way to piss of some Joe’s other then to make them miss chow. That’s the worse. That’s when they’ll do anything to get the job done. You just don’t mess with a Joe’s chow. It’s dangerous. Ask any leadership, they’ll tell you. Joe’s won’t shoot them, but let them have it with their gripes and complaints.

It turned into a late night because not one but two IEDs hit us. That’s right, two in one day. That’s pretty good. No one got hurt though. I hurt myself more when I stabbed my finger accidentally the other day. One of the IEDs exploded during the late early evening. It wasn’t bad. I barely saw it from where I was but it did manage to effect elements of my unit. I think it was more of a firework show to them. I seen the blast of smoke and dust followed by the boom. It went up into the air and then blew away. At the time I didn’t think my unit got hit because it looked pretty far. I was about a mile away at the time of the explosion. I also heard sporadic gunfire at about the same time. It was in a different direction. The gunfire was distant so I didn’t think it would affect any of us. It’s Baghdad, what can I expect? This stuff happens all the time. It’s just about being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The second IED that hit us was later at night. At first we didn’t think anything happened to anyone, a roadside bomb. We just kept driving along like it was nothing. Cool, another IED. I can’t believe it. And this one was in our vicinity. Is everyone alright I thought. T-Rex noticed that the Humvee had stopped. Something was wrong. They weren’t driving anymore. Oh shit! Someone did get hit. We drove up to see if everyone was ok. Everyone was fine. I’m sure they were shaken up and a little shocked. I’m not sure if it’s the first time they’ve been hit by an IED. The first time is always the worse. After that you just start to become used to them. It’s like, oh, it’s just another IED. It’s nothing new anymore. I took pictures of the Humvee later but I can’t post them here for security reasons. It messed that Humvee up though. Well, not too bad. It just took the wheel and tire out. There’s no way we would’ve been able to change out the tire. Good, I didn’t feel like changing a tire in the dark anyway. I hate working in the dark when I can’t see a thing. Wait till we catch you with that bomb. Then see what happens.

One last thing, to my Mom, my Wife, and to all the other Mothers out there, Happy Mother’s Day.