See the War
By Callimachus | Related entries in Blogging, Guns and Ammo, History, Media, The War On Terrorism, WarMy friends on the center-right all know the work of Michael Yon, the Ernie Pyle of the Iraq War. But perhaps the center-left readers here haven’t been introduced to him yet. In that case, here’s an opportunity.
When the Deuce-Four soldiers started loading their two detainees onto the Stryker–crack! A sniper fired. The bullet raced toward us at about one-half mile per second. At that speed, even if the bullet strikes a helmet, or the armor-plating that covers chests and backs, the impact alone can kill. The supersonic bullet was heading straight into the back of a Stryker . . . where bang! It punched a hole through a metal seat, barely missing a detainee and the American soldiers next to him.
Nobody knew all this yet. All we knew was crack! The shot had come from behind me. Within half a second, I was down, swung around on a knee; so fast that some soldiers thought I was shot.
Specialist Chris Espindola and another soldier started laughing. Nobody finds cover faster than me; there is no chance that I will ever be recognized for gallantry in combat. Given how death has a way of interfering with writing, I am okay about that. But seeing them laughing made me think perhaps it wasn’t a sniper; maybe one of them had fired a warning shot. Didn’t sound like an American weapon, though.
I asked, “Did you fire a warning shot?”
They were still chuckling, oblivious we were under sniper attack. But not for long. Soldiers in our Stryker shouted, “Contact, contact, contact!”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 and is filed under Blogging, Guns and Ammo, History, Media, The War On Terrorism, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
