You Think You Have Had A Bad Day?

Day 15 in Iraq. I'm adjusted to the time change, the schedule, job, living conditions and all the rest. Things are already set into a routine, and I'm staying as busy as I can. The days are passing fast.

Today started off like every other day. I haven't heard a shot fired in anger. My roommate moved out and I had the room to myself, and arranged this morning for my coworker to move in with me, and out of the bad situation he was in with his roommate. After we get our work done, we get his stuff put in here.

Then it is time to run some errands. Drop off some laundry, get fuel for the vehicle, look for some woodworking tools at the Hadji-Mart. I'm driving toward the DFAC and laundry facility on the same dirt road I've been on three times a day. In the middle of the road there is a chunk of metal. The roads are real rough, and stuff gets bounced out of vehicles all the time. No big deal. I pull up and stop right next to it so I can chuck it off the road so nobody gets a flat. Hey, I'm a good guy, right?
It is the right thing to do. I'm on base, so no big deal.

I open the door right above the garbage. The roads are still really muddy from the rain two days ago, so I don't want to walk far in the muck. Right below me I now see clearly what the object is. A box duct taped to a hand held radio. Back home, just trash. In Iraq, it is an IED. Improvised Explosive Devise, a roadside bomb two feet from my face!

I've been through the training, I do anti-IED work. There is no mistaking this thing. It is a bomb and I'm way to damn close to it! Close the door, drive fast 100 meters. See soldiers, tell soldiers, that turned out to be Air Force Airmen, set up a cordon at each intersection, don't use your cell phones or radios! Call EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) now! Stand at entrance to the Engineers barracks and block traffic. Officer shows up, brief him on the situation. He verifies with binoculars that yes, it is an IED in the road, right here on post. EOD arrives with their up armored vehicle, clear the area and get out their robot.

Now I've got time to think. My job is done and the experts are in control. I'm now in a bunker and I've already chain smoked every cigarette in my pack and a soldier gives me his entire pack and I'm chain smoking those. I think about my kids, my wife, and how I almost made 5 orphans and a widow. My heart is trying to pound its way out of my chest. I'm not frantic, or hysterical, but I am unnerved. I know how close I came to meeting my maker. Doing 150 mph on my motorcycle doesn't even compare to the pucker factor I'm now experiencing.

The EOD robot destroys the IED. EOD and the military equivalent to CSI move in to what remains of the IED. It is a fake, a training aid used to familiarize soldiers with what to look for outside the wire. I instantly go from upset to anger. Somebody fucked up, big time. I want to kick some ass.

We go back to the hooch and I lay down in bed reciting, or trying to recite the Serenity Prayer over and over. But I can't remember the words. Now I know that I know the words to the Serenity Prayer by heart. I've said it a million times over. But I'm just a little freaked out right now. Eventually I calm down enough that the words come to me and I repeat them over and over and over. Somehow I manage to fall asleep for a little while. My new roommate/coworker/friend wakes me to ensure that I am OK. I go out, use the head, and have a smoke. My boss shows up I explain that I'm OK, just needed a little time to calm down and get right.

How was your day?