Random Death....

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

It was just random death.....

From the Soldier side: I still have a saying at work (my cop job), that saying is: "a bad day in California is still better than the best day in Iraq." (except when certain people there try to annoy me)

For those of you who've been to war, you understand. I can come to work and have crap happen all around me, and it doesn't bother me. Some people think I'm on drugs, or, just don't care. But all I can think of is: "they are not going to kill me and I have some control over what is happening around me."
Then I still get the "stupid question of the day" like: "how many people did you kill in Iraq or Bosnia?" "Were you ever shot at in Iraq?" "Did anyone you know get killed?" "How long were you there?"
My answer: "Zero, Yes, Yes, a year too long."
About getting shot at. I had a theory about getting killed in Iraq. I figured the insurgentassholes were not being personal about it, they were just random. They just wanted to kill somebody, and if they couldn't kill one of us, they'd kill themselves.
Most of the little crappy camps and FOBs I was on got at least one or more mortar attacks. Sometimes we were not sure if it was a mortar or a rocket, and it really didn't matter. They never seemed to aim them at anything important, I think they were just pointing them our way to piss us off.
One day at FOB K, I had taken my first day off in a long time. Mess Kit Repair can have long days, so I needed a day off. I was in my tent (that I shared with 20 other Joe's) reading a novel. I was relaxing and dozing off as it was a nice warm Spring day. There were no birds in the air, and I never saw any flowers like a California Spring, but it was Spring. I hated this FOB because we had to wear our body armor all the time...I'd soon find out why.
About an hour after lunch, I heard two loud "booms." I left my tent just as rocks and crap started to rain down. I could see a sort of mushroom cloud from the explosions about 110-150 meters away. I knew it was mortars landing, and they would only send 2, then the assholeinsurgents would drive off.
The siren sounded, which meant we had to go into the nearest bunker. I grabbed my book and a flashlight so I could keep reading my novel. I fell asleep in the bunker and was there for about 2 hours before one of my team mates came around to check on me. Nobody got hit that day, but it just pissed us off. They sent 2 mortar rounds onto that FOB everyday sometime after lunch...

I'll tell you about how we put an end to that later....