Saturday, January 15, 2005

It wasn't the sound of the explosion that scared me. It was feeling the roiling wave of heat and seeing the dust cloud envelop everything around me. A moment of absolute quiet before someone yells out "INCOMING!" I become aware of the staccato sound of machine gun fire all around. I saw it land 15 meters behind us, yells my driver. Principles. Must get the principles out of here. Are my boys alright? That was too close. Yes, we're good. Got to get out of here. NOW. Nothing until...At the entrance. Forever waiting, not moving...they're here? Ok, time to go. Get everyone to safety. Everyone else running towards the blast and I need to get away. You want me to what? Analyze the impact? Now? Shouldn't I get the principles to safety first??? Yes, ok. Inside the International Zone. Deep breath. Wait. Am I okay? Still got all fingers and toes. Nothing wrong but a slowly building headache. Deep breath. Yes, we're mission complete. And you have another mission for us...................................

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank the good Lord you and your troops are okay.
Love,
AK

BryanP said...

Hey FSIO,

I'm an FSNCO for a 10th Mountain company that will be in Baghdad very very soon. We're not sure what we're doing yet in regards to our mission there though IO is a possibility.

I've been an IO office in Kosovo and Bosnia, so I know what to do...but do you have any pointers for Iraq?

I was in Iraq during the war but did my normal Fire Support mission.

You can contact me at BPalu10183@yahoo.com. Once you make contact I can give you my army.mil address.

Thanks.

Darnell Clayton said...

Close...too close.

Stay in one peace soldier. We here in the states are praying for you! Selah!

membrain said...

Wow. That was a close one. Stay as safe as you can and know that thousands of people are praying and thinking of your safety.