Quote:
Originally Posted by TooTall
All I can say is that I pray I am never put in that situation. I think this soldier will be in my prayers for some time. It is definitely a sobering thought that I might loose all my friends in one day and then have to live with the what-ifs for the rest of my life. May this man be in all our prayers.
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One just has to get past it... somehow.
About a year and seven months ago, I was part of a patrol where we were going to get another SFODA out of harm's way after they came up on an difficult situation during a multi-day patrol. Our combat patrol had three GMVs. The patrol leader had placed the command and control vehicle at the front of the convoy on the task organization. When he briefed the mission, I felt odd about that. I felt that if the command and control vehicle made first contact, it would be doing very little command and controlling. So, I adviced him to either task the middle, or rear vehicle with command and control as a follow and assume mission, or to re-shuffle the order of movement to put his command and control vehicle where it wouldn't the first to make direct fire contact and be able to command and control and control CAS in the fight. He followed my advice. The next morning, we all had breakfast together prior to going on patrol. These men were guys that I had worked with for the last three years. These were my best friends and team mates. I was assigned to the command and control vehicle that morning as a rear gunner (although an officer, on patrol, we are all shooters first). As I was in the command and control vehicle, I was now in the middle, as opposed to the front vehicle. Forty-five minutes after breakfast, we had just passed a place we called "IED Alley". The front vehicle got hit by a very powerful IED. The occupants of the IEDed GMV were my friends. All four occupants were killed instantly. What followed was a seven and a half hour fire fight that ended-up involving both SFODAs that were outside the wire. Two more team mates were injured; but continued to fight. Our most conservative estimates are 70 enemy combatants dead.
There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about those fallen team mates and there is not a day that I don't understand that a tactical analysis by me resulted in them being in the "x" that day. I have asked myself, "Why them and not me?" It hurts sometimes. But, I have realized that this is war and we don't always get to choose who lives and who dies. But, I'll always remember my team mates. And, every time I get a chance at the enemy they will pay dearly. It's just war.
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