A Six Hour Road Move

I only did the one road move but I remember being nervous, quite nervous before we left the camp. Just the thought of it right because you know what’s happening. IED’s are everywhere, people are getting hurt, you know, people are dying and its real life stuff. This is not the movies, this is not Hollywood. So I remember being very nervous but I don’t know what it was. It was like get in the vehicle, we know what our job is, you know what your role is. We are rolling and it’s like this calming came over me. So I was quite calm and I was just remember sitting there. I was on the rear sentry. I just remember sitting there watching my arcs and just reporting anything that was unusual as we travelled. It was about a six hour road move but a blur, just a blur.

So when I went out to the FOB there was infanteers, there was engineers. Those guys were going out every day, sorry like every 72 hours they would come back, they would rest, recoup, rebalm, relax and then they would go out for another op. And where we were situated they would always be walking back and forth our ballistic sea can. I will never forget there was an incident that wasn’t too far away from the camp and it was early. They guys had just stepped off and left. And you could feel the ground rock and you could hear the explosion. And it turned out it was friends of ours, it was their son. Friends of my wife and I. And I didn’t know him but I knew his parents. And I didn’t know at the time who it was obviously. Seeing those guys every time those guys would come back from being out 72 hours it really gave me a greater appreciation for what they do. Plus being that eye in the sky I was always watching anyway so I really knew what these guys were doing.

Another part of our job, we call BDA (battle damage assessment). So we would be assessing for the commander how much damage, what the injuries were, you know, and providing him as much intel as possible so you’re getting, we’re communicating what is called like a secure line so you are getting people, “look here, zoom there, look here, zoom there” that kind of stuff right? So you are looking at some pretty knarly things at times and even though we weren’t physically on the ground but all my senses are heightened except for maybe smell. So there was a lot of that. I definitely have such a greater appreciation for those guys on the ground without a doubt.