Last Days

My time in Iraq is coming close to an end. Day from now I will be loading a Schnook and heading to Warrior, a base, to which I will then load a plain and head to Kuwait. We are so close to the end. Though the days are near the end, they are not over. Yesterday evening we were hit with a mortar which was a strong reminder. Lying on my cot I heard a loud hum. When I heard the sound I knew we were being hit with indirect. I wasn’t afraid though. When you hear a rocket or mortar coming you are usually pretty save, as you hear it when if flies over you. Then a split second later…boom! It hit. It was rather loud. I'm use to being in a bunker when it hits, but at the moment I'm staying in tents. But we aren’t that vulnerable as we have huge concrete barriers around us. None the less it was extremely loud. I got up, put my computer to the side, got my IBA (Individual Body Armor) and caviler on, and went out side to see where it hit. Most everyone was outside looking for the impact site and they said it hit in a field to the west of us and no one was hurt. So I went back to my cot to finish my movie. In the end it was no real big deal. Found out later the located point of impact and it was about 150 meters from our location. The kill radius of the mortar they used was only about 30 meters or so. So we were in no real threat. Yet, it was a reminder that we are still here and danger is still possible.

Around a week ago we had a convoy out on a mission and they were hit with an IED (Improvised Explosive Devise) hurting two members of our Eliminator group. That is the same group that lost three members in one IED attack back in August, one being from the Sparta unit. One had shrapnel to the head and one to the arm. No real reports were announced to us, but they did say that both made it. Not in our AO (Area of Operation), but in the AO of Third Squadron a soldier was killed by an IED last week.

It is a shame to lose a soldier, no matter when, but it does seem a little harder to lose one so close to the end. We have made it this far. But the time is almost over.