0430 and the alarm goes off.  Its still dark outside and the air conditioner is working overtime to keep our boxcar at a balmy 85 degrees.  I get up in the dark and start to get dressed.  My uniform is only 7 days old so I can make it a few more days before putting on a new one.  I grab my rifle and head out the door.  A hot blast of wind strikes me in the face, but the sun isn’t up yet so its still bearable outside.

I walk over to the CP and unlock the office door.  I grab my keys and head over to the lot to start prepping my vehicle.  I unlock the doors and open them all up.  I toss my medical bag inside and crank the engine.  The sun has crested over the horizon and I can tell its going to be really hot today.  A bead of sweat forms on my forehead. I turn on the radios and try to get a radio check.  Damn commo!  I need to re-sync the radios again!  I’ll get to it in a minute.  My crew shows up and starts to check the truck over and mount the weapons.  I get the necessary equipment and fix the radios.  We get into the truck and head over to the staging area to receive our mission brief for the day.

Yet another combat patrol to some little mud hut village with a name too long to pronounce.  We don our body armor and load up. Ready to roll! We head for the front gate and out of the FOB.  The sun is high in the sky by now.  Everything looks over-exposed in the light.  Bleached out and white, even from inside my ballistic sunglasses.  The front gate swings open and we drive out, weapons loaded and ready for anything.  The only sounds are the humvee and the traffic over the net.  Its too hot to talk and no one feels like it anyway.  The A/C in the truck is on, but its barely blows cool due to the drain on the already overtaxed engine. 

I think to myself,“Is today the day?  Are we gonna hit another IED or be ambushed?”  You never really know.  Its been quiet around our parts lately, but that doesn’t mean that the enemy doesn’t have something planned.  Just last night a huge bomb was found next to the road in the direction we are heading.  We make a right and continue up the road, a good piece from the FOB and headed further out into the sandblasted hills.  I remark that everything has turned brown in just the last two weeks. I receive a grunt back from my driver over the headset. The area had been green, but the oppressive heat and lack of rain has pretty much killed off anything green by now. 

Several hours in now.  Its hard to stay focused.  The heat and this stretch of road, now dirt.  The dust is blowing pretty good across the road and I have to clean off my shades every few minutes.  My mind wanders to home.  I miss my wife and child.  I remember what it was like to wake up next to my wife and find my child sleeping peacefully next to her.  I really miss them and I say a silent prayer.  My goal is to get out of this godforsaken hole and back to them.

We pass through the village.  All the little children run out to the road.  They are all smiling and waving, screaming Gimmie! Gimmie!” as we pass by.  We pull into a circle around some sheik’s house and set up security.  Supposedly this guy has information on terrorists in the area.  Then again he could be one himself.  You just don’t know.  Most likely he is playing both sides for the profit.  The meeting lasts a while.  In the meantime we bake in the sweltering heat and had out a few half melted pieces of candy to the kids swarming the truck.  I hope nothing happens here because the children will be hurt and its will be harder to fight back.

Meetings finally over.  Everyone radios that they are ready to leave and we pull back out onto a dirt stretch of road.  Its not much more than hard packed dirt, but thats what passes for a major road here. Only the highways are paved, and that intermittently.  The dust coming from the vehicle in front almost blinds us to our path and there are times that we can only follow the dust trail as we can’t even see the lead truck for the dust cloud.  Budump! Budump!  Must have hit the paved road finally.  Our truck bears left and the patrol speeds down the road.

crack! BOOM! 

What the…!? “IED, IED, IED” the radio blares and I see the hot coals and smoke in front of me.  My driver screeches to a halt dumbstruck. Everyone is momentarily stunned.  The humvee in front of us has shifted across the road, hot embers still rolling underneath it.  There is smoke coming from the front, and I can see even from here that the tires are flat and the axles shattered.  The first thought that crosses my mind as it clears is “Shit! They’re dead.  Gotta get up there and tow that truck out of here before we get ambushed!”  The truck behind me is already racing past to cover our front.  The radio is alive with calls to both us and the downed truck. “Casualties…status…can you move?”  I relay that my truck is mostly undamaged and we have no injuries.  There is no word from the other vehicle.

I pull forward.  As I do I can hear them, barely audible on the radio. “No injuries…. disabled.”  I relay the traffic and as I approach I see that the radio antennas were blown clean off.  I back up to the truck, the tow cable is attached, and we drag the vehicle as quickly as possible down the road and out of the “kill zone.”  Once we are clear, I leap from my truck, and run over to the other truck - medical gear in hand.  I check each man out thoroughly and breathe again only when I am finished.  No life threatening injuries.  Only bruises and scratches.  The bastards missed!  Suddenly, I am very weary as the initial burst of adrenaline rushes from my system.

We spent the passing hour in a security perimeter.  Anxiety was high and we waited for the small arms fire and ambush, but it never came.  The sweat from the 120 degree plus heat evaporated almost immediately, but left a cake of dirt and salt on my face.  My head hurts from the concussion of the blast, the adrenaline, the heat, and the dust.  Even the water in the truck is hot to drink.  I smile as the recovery team approaches.  It takes them a half hour to recover the destroyed truck, and we head out in front of them on the way back to the FOB.

Its been a long day.  No one as hurt this time and I thank God again for seeing me through another day.  We park the trucks, unload out gear, and everyone heads back to out quarters in silence. At least we get to sleep tonight before doing it all again tomorrow.

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