Beautiful Disaster

Marine

The night is moonless, skies only a slight haze. It is very dark outside. So dark my eyes need ten minutes to fully accommodate. There is a magnificent display of stars tonight, reminiscent of what you see in Chicago. The night has a misty, Impressionist feel. Soldiers moving about in the night are just vague dark shapes. Voices are low. Women and men being what they are, couples are forming on Comfort.. I watched the stars until my neck hurt. I got up and went back into my tent. Where the rest of my buddies were. The worst thing here is not the searing heat or the cold nights. It's the waiting. Waiting for the wind to quit blowing and the sand to quit grinding against your skin. Waiting for a moment of privacy in a tent packed with seventy other men, in a camp packed with seven hundred other tents, in a base packed with fifteen thousand soldiers, all looking for a clean place to go to the bathroom. . . . Waiting for the bone-rattling coughs from dust finer than powdered sugar to stop attacking the lungs. Waiting for the generals to order the battalion to move north, into Afghanistan where others Iraqis were also waiting: waiting for us. I vaguely remember our last security mission about three months back. My buddy Elias and I were along the outside highway. And I remember that night an Iraqi man had started to approach us. We were unsure if he was armed. So we began to fire warning shots. Still unclear of his intentions. Elias suggested that the Iraqi appeared to have needed help. But I was still unsure. until he had dropped to his knees that's when we were barraged by rocket propelled grenades and machine gun fire. There were soldiers everywhere. One was shot in the torso. Elias and I were pinned down behind our vehicle for I don't know what seemed to have been hours. There was shit flying everywhere.

"I looked down, and noticed nothing but blood everywhere coming but appeared to be on my right leg. I began to wonder if I would be alive to see my girl Mia again.

One scout hollered for a medic. It all happened so fast my pants leg was cut away and my wound was cleaned. I remember three soldiers had carried in my buddy Elias.

We both had seriously injured our right legs. My wound barely missed the femur. Elias wasn't as lucky though; the bone appeared to have been shattered.

Medics couldn't stop the bleeding. As they operated, I held Elias IV bag with one hand and the other hand with his other hand. I didn't really know what to do so I kept talking to him, about his wife Summer and their daughter Faith to keep him from going into shock.

Suddenly a truck exploded and blew out windows in the institute. The medics moved Elias to a more secure room and demanded I step out. They assured me that Elias would be OK. He was in good hands.

The next morning, I was transported back to my unit. All of my gear had been destroyed in the ambush, so my fellow soldiers gave me a change of clothes and toiletries.

Then an officer came in shortly there after I got in to update me on the status of my buddy Elias

He was dead.

"I wanted to go home,I felt numb and was in a state of shock "I couldn't believe it."

I actually was given the option to return home, but decided to tough it out."You have to get over it, and move on or you won't survive. But here I am My Battalion is finally going home tomorrow.