The Loudest Alarm Clock
During a hot Iraqi morning, I watched 5 million dollars
worth of military equipment become worthless. I woke up and opened the door to
the outside area where my unit's trucks parked in a line 75 yards away. As I took
a step out of the room, one of the vehicles exploded. I froze for a second,
trying to comprehend what was happening. I watched several more explosions
occur before slamming the door shut and looking at my group in the room, some
still sleeping, others getting boots and helmets on.
The Aftermath
Our Platoon Sergeant was sitting at the edge of his bed and
looked up at me and asked, "Hey, Hrabe, is it raining outside." This
was somewhat of a normal response because we had been in the country for
several months at this point and we had become somewhat desensitized to this
everyday occurrence. After an hour so, we all walked out to our vehicle line to
see the damage.
Looking over the damage with my platoon, a team leader took
a hard drag off his cigarette while joking, "It looks like we are walking
for a while." We worked for several weeks to fix what we could while
trying to find replacements for the trucks. We walked so many miles for those
weeks in the hot sun through beautiful palm groves and scorching desert heat.
We were in Al Hit, Iraq living in an abandoned Iraqi bunker.
My unit and I had just moved into this area, and it was our first morning in
this space. We were assigned to the area because of many mortar attacks, as
well as an uptick in insurgent activity.
It was 2006 near Ramadi, Iraq, one of the hottest and most
televised areas that year. I still currently serve in the United States Army as
a Reservist, and although hard days like that stick, so many better ones do
too.
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