Nothing Quite Like It!

Just prior to going over in ’06, I was promoted to the rank of master corporal and I was placed in 5 Platoon B Company and in January of 2006 we were on a flight headed over the pond to experience something like I never thought in any way that I would ever experience. I never thought that I would be encased in anything that I experienced over there. We landed in Kandahar airfield and I just remember getting off the plane and it was just that impact of that heat and getting off the plane on the tarmac and it was like wow! This is something else! I never been to a desert type environment so that in itself was just a shock. Once we got off the plane and we organized ourselves in Kandahar airfield we did some engagements with the personnel that we’d be relieving and getting our weapons all checked out and just briefings and then we packed up our stuff and it was B Company that was encased into the PRT down in Kandahar city and I remember everybody talking before we headed out about these golden arches and IED alley and you just start hearing stories and, you know, it creates this initial feeling of anxiety which I couldn’t relate with before. I didn’t understand what anxiety was, I took it sort of like an adrenalin, keeping myself aware because when we initially jumped in the vehicles to roll out to head down to the PRT in Kandahar airfield, oh sorry in Kandahar city, it was just like wow this is something else. Like I am going through these poignant spots where like you hear about it on the news, you see it on TV but now it’s like I am going to experience this. And I mean we made it through. There wasn’t any incidents but I just remember that initial rush of adrenalin and it made me feel alive. It was like a powerful drug that I just, like I liked it! I loved it and I wanted more of it.