26. A Wall of Sparks

Written: March 29 - 31, 2003

Saturday, March 29
Woke up at 10am and just hung out all day. It was a nice cool day and very relaxing. Spent all of it in my tent listening to music and cleaning up my area. I took all my clothing outside to shake the dust out of it (lots of dust) and took my boots and shoes apart and put them in the sun to air dry them. Also beat the sand out of my socks and left them outside in the sun to kill the bacteria.

Worked on my Officer Evaluation Report (OER). It is due now. I filled out my portion and CPT Cushwa did his. I found out that I will be rated against all the CW3’s in the Battalion since I am now promotable.

Tonight we were all performing various missions and some of us were relaxing. The sun was down and it was almost fully night. There was a light breeze blowing but it was pleasant. Kenny Somkovic and I were standing outside when suddenly we saw a huge explosion. We saw a wall of sparks fly up in the air and could see the splash from the explosion. As this happened, it seemed as if all the air was sucked up in a vacuum and we could not breathe (but it was only for a split second as the explosion released and smacked us in the face). Within a second we heard the blast. We also felt it hit us. From what we could see it was no more than 100 meters away. With that, we ripped open the door to our tent and saw 5 people scurrying to gather their helmets, protective masks and body armor. Kenny's bed is closest to the door but there were others (who do not live in this tent) trying to get out. SFC Cross had a canteen cup of coffee in his hand and was trying not to spill it. I was trying to push past Eirc Baucom and SFC Cross so I could get to my mask. It was like the Dr. Suess book where the two guys travel on the same path and neither will move out of the other's way...anyhow, I could see that he was holding his breath (so not to breath chemicals) so I let him by. SFC Cross's coffee was spilled and he was scattering to the end of the tent as I passed by. I gathered my mask, put it on and saw that everyone else had theirs on too. Fred S. and I helped each other get our body armor on and we were all preparing to head to our bunker...with our full chemical suits on...finally, SFC Harris yelled that it was explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) detonating something. So, we took our masks off and started telling War stories about where we were when the explosion happened. It was interesting and I know it doesn't sound funny, but to see everyone scattering for their gear was pretty funny...Eric Baucom said he tripped 3 times on the way to his tent.

Worked on a letter to send to everyone’s family as an email courtesy of Bob. Unfortunately, somehow it got lost so they will have to write it again.

Watched, “The New Guy” then typed in my journal and went to bed at 3am.

Tomorrow, the 101st may be doing another attack. We will be on PR for that. Then the following night there is supposed to be a LRS insertion and Sam’s team will be on for that one.

Sunday, March 30
Spent the day on PR support. We preflighted then came back in for an S-2 (intelligence) update by CPT Halter.

Fred and I worked on putting our Iraqi maps together. Took a while, but was pretty easy although we weren’t too into doing it.

Worked on getting the Company to put email messages together for their family members. Bob said he would let me get online via his satellite connection and send the email to our family members.

Spent a few hours with Bob trying get the internet to work then finally got in. First time I have been on the internet (especially email) since February 8th. I sent the message from my Hotmail account then Bob left and told me to take my time and write a personal letter home. I sat down for a few and wrote a quick letter to Stef. When I checked my mail again, I found that she was there at her computer and had answered me right away. We sent a few frantic emails back and forth and chatted real time. We were both rushing our replies because we didn’t know how long we would have to talk. It was great to hear from her. I miss her a lot. She received the 4 pictures I sent and was happy to see that we had shaved our heads (not really)…she laughed and said that although I looked dirty and bald, I still looked good. In a few days I will check the mail again and see if any of the family members responded.

Watched, “Mystery Alaska” from 1:30 to 3:30 am then went to bed.

Monday, March 31
Another day to relax and enjoy more time in the desert. It seemed much hotter today than it has the past few days. Still don’t know (or care) which day of the week it is.

Talked to CPT Halter about some intelligence. A Brigade commander from the Nebecunezzar division of the Republican Guard surrendered with 800 of his men.

Also heard that the Iraqi’s put women and children on and around some of their vehicles so they could get them across a bridge and retreat away from attacking American forces. Also heard that one of our Combat camera men caught it on tape. We all assume that it will be on T.V. tonight.

Gathered some information for today’s PR crew then hung out cleaning up my area and doing laundry. Washed my flight suit, underwear, t-shirt, socks, and pillow case. I had been wearing the same, nasty, sand soaked clothes since a few days before we left Udairi.

We watched, “Shrek” then CPT Cushwa went to get another movie.

CPT Cushwa talked with Fred and I about crew changes and let us know that Fred and I would be split up give other people more challenge and experience.

Fred will be flying with Billy and I will fly with CPT Cushwa or Mike Polk. We are told that Randy Smith and Chris Montiero will be here tomorrow to join us in the “suck.”

Fell asleep while watching, “Shanghi Noon.”