A Smile that Left an Impact

Once we got settled at the PRT in Kandahar City, everybody was moved in there. The platoons were all moved in and we started doing patrols and the first real incident that transpired and I had no involvement in it but one of the convoys came back and they were hit. And I just remember them rolling back into the camp and, you know, the initial sight and the smell of those rounds and the burnt and the blood, it was a real gut check to say, you know, like wow this is really happening. I think more or less it really opened my eyes as to what it was that I put my name on the line for. The patrols started amping up. The operations started amping up and by the time I knew it we were out on an operation and the first true engagement that really like smashed my brain apart was the day that Captain Nichola Goddard was killed. I didn’t have very much engagement with Captain Goddard. I just remember in the staging grounds prior to going in on this operation Captain Goddard was the forward observer. She was there to call in artillery fire in case we required it. I remember Captain Goddard coming down the convoy before we mounted up and I just remember her smile. She left that impact on me as such a genuinely good person. Initiated a very small conversation and she kept on going. That day that we got hit, we were static on that ground where we got into that engagement for quite a long time and I just remember hearing over the radio, “Mount up!” and as soon as that transpired it was just RPG after RPG after RPG and Captain Goddard lost her life that day and it was really, it hit me really, really, really hard.