One of Ours

We just got back on base. For a while there, I didn’t think that would happen. We got ambushed yesterday, except it was a twenty-one hour ambush. We made CNN, except of course they got it wrong.

At about four AM the other day, the coalition force rode out the gate and took back the town. At nine thirty we rolled out, arrived at our usual destination, and by ten thirty, we were under fire. We were in a compound of five or six major buildings, large enough to be hotels, not quite large enough to be palaces, that had once been owned by Chemical Ali.

We started out on the roofs, looking for snipers. But RPGs and mortar fire forced us down and as we retreated, the shooters started hitting the building more often because they were walking their weapons closer. Eventually, our safe area was reduced to just one hallway in a central building.

I have never been so scared in my life. Scared doesn’t cover it: terrified doesn’t, either. I'd never known it was possible to be terrified and be totally calm...

...No other government building in the province was not under his control. Our little force, outmanned and outgunned, held him off for better than twenty hours, and then slipped out under his nose. He wanted to keep us there, be his bargaining chips while he tightened his fist around the province. And that fucking governor went along with it. We eventually found out the governor was contacting the command and telling them, no, no Evac behind our backs. He wanted US Marines dropped off and the civilians put in the helicopters while they secured his villa and offices. His own people were running around trying to arrange Evac, and kept counter-manding him. Then he’d go on the air and countermand them...

...All three of the other guys got wounded slightly----nothing much. I wasn’t one of them, obviously. One guy fell down when an RPG whistled too close and fell, but he’s okay. Everybody else got chipped by flying bricks and mortar, stuff like that. We had one guy who got clipped on the head a little bit closer than I did. That bullet gave him a permanent part to his hair, a real good story to tell---assuming he can ever put it into words----and took one of his nine lives. A coalition soldier died, and two were wounded.

Two Iraqi guards stayed with us. I’m very impressed with that. Everyone else fled...

...We did have choppers and the occasional F-16, but the gov wouldn’t allow them to drop any bombs. He never did explain why. All I know is, when I looked up at the chopper, and it was close enough to see the pilot’s profile in the sunset, I thought that was as close as I was going to get to getting out.

I can’t do anything but repeat myself, now, so I’m just going to go shake.