Big Mexican Dinner

[Note: I wrote this a couple of years ago, and some of you may have read it before. However, I wanted it to migrate to this blog, so bear with me.]

Bang! Bang! Pop! Pop! I didn’t even hear it, at least not consciously. Spending nearly seven months in Afghanistan had desensitized me to the sound. Most explosions I heard there were controlled detonations set off by explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) specialists. Sometimes, the explosions were landmines, but as long as I heard it that far away, I knew I had not just stepped on a mine so I did not think much of it. This explosion was different. It was quieter…and much closer. Chappy heard it because she was awake using the restroom. Kelly heard it because she was on guard at her truck waiting for the word. I didn’t even wake up.

WEEEEEOOOOOOOOOW! The siren started blaring. I heard it. Instinctively, and almost still asleep I took the protective mask from underneath my head (I had been using it as a pillow) and fumbled in the dark to put it on. The mask had either been attached to my hip or right next to my head every since I arrived in Kuwait. It was never out of reach. I used to joke back in training, and before deploying that if I was ever in a chemical attack that I’d rather die than wear the mask. I hated it. The truth was that I was terrified of a chemical attack and would have never dreamed of not donning the mask. I put it on, and put my head back down on the mask carrier to go back to sleep.

I was on the floor. Mike and Chad were too. Our cots were loaded in the back of our truck which was waiting for us…another three hours and we were supposed to be getting up to finish our final load for the drive into Iraq. Not everyone was trying to go back to sleep. People were bustling about. It happened every time the alarms sounded. The radio crackled. It was just an ICOM (one of the hand held unsecured walkie-talkie types), just a way for Cruz to keep in touch with the Company. He said, “Enemy inside the wire”, but I didn’t hear it. I almost never heard anything. It was a joke among us…I was deaf…and my job depended on my listening skills more than anything else. Carr yelled something but I didn’t hear it. I was too busy wondering why in the hell she had just pulled off her mask. Then someone yelled take the masks off…lights out…everyone get down. It was echoed and this time I heard it, “Enemy in the wire”. I started laughing. No shit, I was laughing. I knew this was bullshit. Total bullshit. What the FUCK was going on? In the dark two men came running by me, it was Stewie and someone else. They got down by the entrance with their guns pointing outward. If someone had walked into the tent they would have stepped right on top of Stewie’s fucking neck. It was stupid really. He couldn’t even see out the door.

I heard it. The metallic grating of dirty M-4’s being charged. Ready to fire. I muttered, “Oh damn, someone’s gonna get killed.” I whispered to Mike and Chad, “I’m not fucking moving, these psychos are going to kill someone.” We waited. We waited again. Finally, a description came over the radio. “Two Arab males wearing US military uniforms, one has long hair.” What the fuck? I know this is bullshit! It is bullshit, right? We waited again. Continue reading This Is How It Started…