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My story
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My story The following is real I am going to tell you a little about myself...I was a bartender and a DJ for many years in Florence SC... I am going to focus on my life after this when I was a 30 year old washed up drug addict...then 9-11 happened and it changed something deep inside of me. I decided to go into the army when I was 33 about 2005.. I trained hard , and let me tell you getting up everyday at about an hour before the sun.is not easy on a 33 year old, pack a day smoker,and then running for a very long time with a bunch of 18 year olds. I survived though ... and soon found myself outrunning these same<b> teenagers...</font></b>I had found myself..I thought. I loved army life and soon found myself a very much integral part of a team.you see I was a forward observer... that means I was calling in artillery strikes on the enemy.I wasstationed n Germany and soon found myself a sergeant...and I was a team leader of a mobile strike force team that would inter the enemy lines ...you see I was the guy who was closer to the enemy...and I knew that my time on this earth might be cut short.. you see I was to be deployed Iraq...and I was against going into Iraq from the start.. I thought I was best utilized going into Afghanistan..where the real enemy was.. I smiled and said hooah..when they asked me to go..(if anyone has ever been in the army they know what hooah means)...it means gung-ho...or yes or even no..it depends on the inflection...but I meant it as yes sir ... I was going to be part of president Bush's much publicized surge. I wasn't sure what that meant for me at the time ..but I would soon find out. I soon found myself guarding convoys. I wasn't going to even use my skills as an artillery specialist , I was doing god damn force protection ( there were a lot of I.e. d. Attacks by this time in war.)...one day I found myself in charge a short run to telafar right outside of Baghdad Iraq.i was in the second Humvee in a column of four vehicles ...you see they (those sneaky bastards had figured out how we ran our convoys and how the command element is usually in the middle of the column. I put my best friend in the first Humvee.where he would be safe( or so I thought)...as we rode by this burned out hulk of a vehicle on the side of the road. I thought I would joke with my friend in the first.. I said over the mic of the radioof the Humvee"look out Evans, there is an IED in that vehicle to your right 3 olock". He knew the tone of my voice said that I was joking.we laughed , all of us in the second Humvee. Evans hand was sticking out the window of the first humvee with the middle finger extended and not in salute....but the laughter soon turned to screams of pain as a huge explosion ripped through the first humvee... lifting it up into the air and flipping over ,landing on its turret... I could still see Evans middle finger on his arm...or rather what was left of his arm.. I was momentarily stunned...then an AK -47 round impacted the front of my humvee shattering the glass of my ballistic protected windshield .and bringing me back to my senses. I slowly climbed up and opened the door of my humvee ...using the door of my humvee as a shield and returned fire, popping noises is all I heard as I returned fire in the direction of the now smoking horrendous hulk of what had just seconds before been at least in the shape of a vehicle... I was firing in the wrong direction at first ...but then I heard the big 50 calibre.on the Humvee shattering the sound barrier that my busted eardrums had created for me ...I heard it roar thanks to my boss on the mission: sergeant first class Mike Walden was making it talk:as well as the u.s. Marines... they were our back up on the mission ...you see Marines are taught to charge the enemy that contacted them...we weren't...we were supposed to sit tite ...call in a nine line dust off(a military version of a 9-11)..and wait to establish a perimeter...while the boys back at base on the fob .figured it out. I was still firing at the hulk when I heard Sgt Walden call out" 10 o Clock Williams ""theyre firing from the other direction that I was firing in"I thought..then just as I turned around and trained the iron sites of my m-4 carbine.on the real enemy I heard"" cease fire !cease fire"! You see the united states marine core takes fighting seriously., And they had placed themselves in front of us shielding us from the two or three stupid Iraqis that planned this murderous act..who were still firing at us..then I just heard the murderous sounds of two 50 callibre machine ma deuces at once killing the Iraqis at once not even getting out there vehicle... they had just saved my life you see and tears starting streaming from eyes I thought to myself " the united states marine core just saved my life wow"..and then I thought of my best friend ... I waved off the Navy coreman...I had to see what these filthy murderers had done to my best friend..." you shouldn't go over there " I heard the Navy coreman call out to me ...he had already heard over his radio that there two kia's (killed in action) and one expectant(which means dieing)..in the first Humvee..you see it had taken the brunt of the explosion and it showed it..as three of its four tires were still smoking..there fires being extinguished by the Navy coreman who was treating the first Humvee..?the Navy coreman looked at me in the face" besides you have a tbi (traumatic brain injury)yourself" he said " now , sit down and let me take a look at you " as he shined his pinlight at my eyeballs he said " yep that's a tbi... If I have ever seen one"... besides he knew the longer kept me there the quicker the Marines would work on my friend... he knew me and Evans were tight ...you see a military deployment becomes about your family ...the people that you serve with become your brothers ... I can't really explain it to people who Haven't been out there " down range" is what all servicemen call it..you just have to experience it for yourself. I can't put into words what these people mean to you....they literally keep you alive ...and that is something that you can't explain...oh well I tried I was transported to Germany later that night...as they feared I might have been more hurt inside of my brain ...you see MRI.machines are not in abundance in Iraq at the time..it was November 21,2007 the day that I lost my best friend and I still don't do anything on that day but think of his last act of his life..flipping me off ..you see he would have thought that this as extremely funny...you just had to know this guy.. I have been through a lot of therapy to help me deal with the horrors of Iraq..but I can't help but smile as I think of best friends act..flipping me off..I will write about something else that's been going in life on my next blog.. check it out..later this week..but for now vuya con dios myfriends Craig Williams... |
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