BOMBS AWAY

The following information was relayed to me from one of the military men serving currently in Iraq:

“It was about 0400 (4AM) when our team was called out to identify a suspected bomb. It was inside a truck semi-load filled with various crated food items. Right in the middle of all that chow was a round cylindrical metal container, connected by wires. The very fact that it was hidden made it highly suspicious. The only way that I, the ranking NCO (E-7), could get next to the device was to strip off all my body armor and get in there with a flashlight and tools to see if I could identify it. I could not send in one of my men to do what I would not, so I asked them to take cover behind the perimeter, while I investigated.

Thoughts like, “this may be my last assignment,” and “I may never see my family again,” filled my mind. I figured, if the thing blew, all I would see would be a flash of light and it would be all over. To say that I was scared was a serious understatement and yet, I really had no time for it. I was paid to do a certain type of job and I wanted to give it my best shot. It was very cramped quarters, around the device, and I was perspiring heavily. After serious inspection, however, I discovered that it wasn’t a bomb at all, but instead, an industrial flour mixer for the galley.

It’s always easy to laugh about such things, after the pressure is gone, but it could have been the real thing. We don’t always have the equipment we need and many of us have been involuntarily extended past our enlistments, some of us as much as five years longer than we signed up for. We are told that it had to do with the fine print in our enlistment contracts.

Our bosses tell us that they just don’t have enough people to replace us, so we are stuck for awhile. Some of the guys have developed really bad attitudes and will purposely get into trouble, just to be able to be shipped home sooner. Most of us are good guys, trying to do our job, but between the bombs, the heat and the bullets, it’s not that easy. Our families fear for us and we can’t blame them. May God grant us a safe journey home soon.