Memoirs of an Outlaw: Life in the Sandbox

Chapter 14: Ambush Alley

After a few days' worth of what seemed like endless vehicle checkpoints and patrols, our company’s mission changed. We were to go to the western edge of our area of operations, which was a bridge we had nicknamed the Tar-Tar Bridge. We had to set up security positions there and conduct small patrols out of the area, set up more vehicle checkpoints, and provide security for military convoys going through.

The first couple of days and nights were relatively boring. Our platoon would go out at the same time every day and conduct short patrols along the ASRs and survey the area around the bridge and truck stop. Occasionally, we would conduct vehicle checkpoints along the MSR and stop cars at random. It became very monotonous.  Second (White) Platoon got called on to support some other MEF mission at the time. Third (Blue) Platoon was requested to be attached to another battalion as a support element. So that left our platoon, Headquarters (Black), and Weapons (Brown) Platoons to conduct these security patrols.

Around the night of April 6, things began to get a bit more lively. That night we were settled into a defensive position close to the bridge in a defensive 360. I could have sworn I saw my breath, but I think my mind was playing tricks on me. None of us had prepared for the huge temperature variation, so most of us were only wearing our camouflage utilities with a T-shirt underneath. That night for fire watch, we had gone down to 50 percent, meaning only half of the team had to stay up for watch while the other half rested. I was lying in the prone position behind a small mound of dirt shivering uncontrollably (the temperature during the day was somewhere around eighty degrees, and it suddenly dropped to fifty), and Shearer was to the far right of me doing the same. Every fifteen minutes or so, I would slowly get up to check on Shearer to see if he needed anything. He just griped about how damn cold it was and how he couldn’t wait to get into his sleeping bag. After an hour on watch and an hour left to go, I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran over to my vehicle to get my camouflage poncho blanket out of my rucksack (backpack) and got Shearer his too. I went back to my position, covered myself with the blanket, and sat there for a while, constantly scanning the horizon and checking on Shearer to see if he was staying awake and all right. I just couldn't wait for my two-hour shift to be over so I could bundle up in my sleeping bag and get warm again.

A little while later, I heard a convoy driving by our position on the main road in blackout conditions (no lights on at all; they drive using night-vision goggles). This had been happening for the past few days with no problems, so it didn’t seem new. They passed, and I went back to my normal routine—scan and check, scan and check.

That's when it happened.

BOOM! RATA TAT TAT RATA TAT TAT!

The convoy that had just gone by drove maybe two miles past our position and came under fire. The convoys, however, only returned fire but did not pursue the enemy. From what I understand, if a convoy were to come under enemy fire, the convoy was to return fire but speed up to pass through the enemy fire and then request backup.

The night was filled with parachute flares and green and red tracers. It reminded me of the Fourth of July in Staten Island when I was a kid. And then, as suddenly as it happened, it stopped. There was complete silence. We were ordered to stay in place, and that is exactly what we did—just sat and waited, which was extremely unnerving.

About a half hour went by, and another convoy passed. The same thing happened. They got about two miles down the road from us, and the fireworks started going off. And once again, we did nothing.

An hour passed with no sounds to be heard. Another convoy passed, and as was becoming the routine, it came under fire and they ran like hell to get out of the enemy fire.

Finally, MEF Headquarters gave us the order to check it out and see what was going on down there. Captain Shepard decided to send just our platoon to check out the situation and report back. Sweet. We finally get to do something new, I thought.