I was released from active duty during the draw down period at that time. My orders to Drill Sergeant school had been deferred until my return from ODS, when we returned as a battalion from Kuwait there were about 6 of us that had been on orders for Drill school, but the orders were rescinded due to the amount of E-5's on the trail at the time. I had been in a promo table status at the time and missed being promoted by 50 points.
3. Blowing tanks and ASP's: When we were destroying the battlefield equipment left behind we had to make sure we did enough damage to make it complete junk. The LT had the bright idea to stuff a tank barrel with explosives, pickets and other crap. His thought was that it would cause the barrel to peel like a banana, although his plan was a good one he didn't take into account what he was actually trying to do. A tanks barrel is designed to have stuff shot through it, so when he set off his charge everything shot out the end, he was kinda bummed. We ran across different types of equipment from T-55s to T-72s, BMP armored personnel carriers, Anti-Aircraft Guns, and towed artillery pieces. Just about every tank had ammo still in them. One of the BMPs we found had Frog Missile rounds in racks surrounding the TCs hatch. We had a lot of TNT we had to get rid of. I expect it was from Vietnam, or Korea, maybe even WWII. I know we had mines from WWII we were told to dispose of when blowing ASPs and bunkers. When we first started placing charges in the tanks we would have one of the skinnier guys get down inside and place 2 blocks of primed TNT on the tank rounds. They would climb back out, pull the igniter and hit our safe distance and wait for the fireworks. Man, were we disappointed by the first few tanks we tried to blow apart. Then someone got the idea to shut the hatches and maybe with nowhere for the blast to escape, we would get a better explosion. Sure enough the turret flew about 50ft from the hull. After that we would always close and latch the hatches shut. The BMP with the Frog missile rounds was the best one, the only thing left was track embedded in the sand. The cargo hatch passed us as we were racing to get out of the area. I had jumped in the back door of our APC and sat with my feet dangling out the door. When I saw that hatch I rolled backward to get more protection. We also had a bunch of old war stock shaped charges that needed to be used up (destroyed). So we had a class on the shape charges then set them up. We pointed a few straight up, a few were placed horizontally, but most were placed the conventional way with different standoff heights. The charges that were placed horizontally shot across the desert like a ball of fire, the ones pointed up were about the same. Once the charge got out of the blast dust you could easily see them.
It got to the point that the treasure seekers about got themselves killed looking for battlefield souvenirs. They would see us leave and then race in to see what was left that they could grab. There were a few close calls with tanks blowing up when they were too close, so it came down from on high that we had to have MPs with us. We had to have security on 4 sides to head off anyone from trying to get around us. We had to call fire in the hole on the common radio freq, wave flags and fire flares to make sure no one got too close. When we got these missions to go out and blow something up we would get a direction and distance from our bivouac site.
This was way before GPS was common. The LT had a LORAN device but it never worked. We were going out one day to blow some artillery pieces when we ran across some Bedouins with their sheep. We stopped and indicated we were going to be blowing things up so they could get away from the area. They came out from behind their little pickup truck with 2-82mm mortar rounds for us to take away. So we get to the site where the guns are located and the breech blocks had already been cracked, but they wanted the barrels cracked as well. We played around with different calculations and placement of the charges on the barrels. I was monkeying around and climbed up on a gun piece and slid out to the end. One of the guys starts to crank the barrel up so I'm trying to shimmy down before I get to high, but no, they get it going up faster, so I wrapped my legs around the barrel and roll underneath. It's one of my most favorite pictures from out there, I'm hanging upside down from the barrel like a giant sloth. Well, we get just about done with 1 gun, 90 pounds of C-4 and about 60 blasting caps. So I'm setting the charges up when I hear this zzzipp, zzzipp, zzzipp noise, I realize what it is as everyone is ducking for cover. Its those f!@#ing Bedouins shooting at us with AK-47's from long range. Here I am with all this demo praying their shooting is really crappy trying to get this last charge set. No one would come out to help finish. I'm pissed, I get the charge set, pull the igniter and hustle my big dumb ass back to the safety of the track. We get loaded and head out to safe distance to wait for the charge, BOOOOOOOM, that gun was cut in half with the barrel sticking straight up in the air. We get headed back to camp and we see the Bedouins hauling ass away from us.
We had a few more things we had to demolish. One was a hospital bunker and the other was 2 ASPs (Ammo Supply Point). The hospital bunker was the worst with no lights, stench and lots of rooms, about 25 under ground level. I was just on my way into a room when someone hollered about needing a light so I give up my flashlight thinking I'm heading for the surface anyway. On the way out I see this room off to the side. I step in slowly letting my eyes try to adjust to the really low light. I figure if I get to the other side of the room I can use the light in the hall to see. I stepped on something it squashed I just about puked as I'm heading for the door.
I get outside and I'm gagging trying not to lose my MRE I had for breakfast, ugh, that was a nasty, putrid stench, and it's all over my boots. I start dragging my foot around trying to scrape that crap off, eventually it did come off. But being a Super Combat Engineer I just have to check out what it was I had stepped on. So I grab someone else's flashlight, put my protective mask on and head back inside. I get into the room and I can smell that nasty smell through my mask. It was just my brain, I couldn't actually smell anything. It's a leg, yup, a leg. It had been cut off high up on the thigh and tossed against the wall. I guess the guy didn't need it anymore. I had stepped on the bloated calf and it had splattered. There were flies, maggots and who knows what other nasty things feasting. Ugh, gives me the creeps just remembering.
OF ALL YOUR DUTY STATIONS OR ASSIGNMENTS, WHICH ONE DO YOU HAVE FONDEST MEMORIES OF AND WHY? WHICH ONE WAS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE?
My first tour in West Germany was the best by far, although I didn't realize it at the time. My worst was with the transportation unit I deployed with, although I do have friends from that unit. As platoon leader of my route clearance platoon in Ramadi Iraq in 2006-07. The picture attached to this reflection is from my last tour in 2006-2007. This was my gun truck crew. We had escorted some of our equipment to Al Qa'im, near the Syrian border, we had Thanksgivining dinner at Al Asad air base on our way north, the picture is the day after Thanksgiving as we were waiting for our SP
 |
| Gun Truck Crew, Al Qa'im Iraq |
(Start Point) time. Right to left, SGT David Straight Driver, SPC Jonathan Doornink Gunner, SGT Angie Magnifico (Coats) Spotter. SGT Coats was the supply sergeant for one of our companies. Whenever we escorted and she was on mission she would ride with my crew. Here are some more War Stories from ODS.
4. F@#K IRAQ in artillery charge pellets: While we were going around blowing up and destroying anything left on the battlefield, we would often come across caches of artillery round and powder. When we first found them we were curious, as any good Combat Engineer is, so we took one of the bags and cut it open. Inside were pellets about 1/2" thick and about an inch and a half long. They reminded me of some type of old style candy that had been extruded. Maybe a bit like licorice, but these had 5 or 6 of these little openings that ran through them. They were made that way for the charge to burn all at once instead of waiting for it to burn all the way through. You need to realize the 'burn rate' for these things are in the micro-micro-micro seconds. Let me explain; once we figured out what we could do with these pellets we would write in the sand with them and then light them off. Whatever we had outlines of in the sand was flash melted (a little bit, not like glass) enough that it wouldn't blow away. So, as the Soldiers we were, we decided to make a fairly large statement that could be read from the air. We decided we would spell out F!@k Iraq in 4' high letters. After we had the area cleared and the pattern outlined, we started pouring the pellets out. I don't recall how many bags it took, but the letters being 4' high were about 4"-6" deep.
While we were doing this, another squad was getting the charges laid out on the arty shells. We decided to set off the powder message first before we moved back our safe distance. Well, I survived to laugh and write about this really, really stupid idea. We knew this stuff flashed very fast so we had made a snail trail of pellets so we wouldn't get flash burned,
I think we figured 20' would be far enough away to drop a lit cigarette on the trail. Everyone moved back a hundred feet or so behind a couple of our HMMWV's (Humvee) I got close enough so I could toss the lit cigarette and make a getaway. They say that every good plan has faults. I tossed the cigarette, turned and took about 1 step before I felt this severe heat on the back of my head. I had gotten flash burned from that conflagration! God protects the innocent and the ignorant. I wasn't innocent so I guess that tells you what I was that day.
5. Swimming pool: At the end of the ground war we had a lot of time on our hands after we had completed our missions. When we returned to our bivouac site that night one of the Troops had an idea of making a swimming pool. We were near a berm that was about 2' tall and thick enough to walk on. It had a loop in the wall that may have been a drinking trough for sheep during the wet season. We took one of the tarps from an M-113 and lined the bottom of the pool area but the area was bigger than the trough so we had to build up one side with boxes, crates and whatever else we could find. There was a Bedouin in the area that had a well. One of the guys had taken a 5 gallon water jug down to get it filled, as he was pantomiming what we wanted the Bedouin got across to us that he wanted help for his daughter who had been shot. We got our medic to go and check her out to see what we could do for them. The girl had been shot in the arm or leg, or somewhere not life threatening. Our medic gave the father as many dressings as he could give without jeopardizing his stock. Doc was also able to give the father aspirin to help with the girls fever. Because of all this the Bedouin let us take as much water as we wanted. So that's where we got the water to build a swimming pool in the middle of the desert. But that's where the fickle finger of our platoon sergeant hit. We had to wait til the end of the 'Duty Day'. What a crock! We were sitting around attracting flies so we could see how many we made 'walks' (flies without wings). We would watch dung beetles rolling camel crap around in balls, play 'Desert Darts' (think of lawn darts) made of aluminum poles with a 2 inch steel end and cardboard for wings or any other mindless thing we could come up with to break the boredom. But we had to wait til after 1700 to get into the pool. The funny thing about the pool, it was all of 18"-24" deep, but we enjoyed the cool water when we finally did get in.
6. Touring Kuwait City: We had gone into Kuwait City to tour around the different locations, see the city and to see the damage the Iraqi Army had done to this once beautiful city. We found a Kuwaiti who was driving around looking for groups of US Troops to give a tour of the city. When we stopped near where he was giving a tour to some French Foreign Legionnaires. We waited til he had finished with them and then we mingled with the Legionnaires, asking them questions about their service. I had a Soldier who was interested in their history so he enjoyed the time he got to talk with them. When the Legionnaires left, the Kuwaiti gentleman came over to us and said "Welcome to Kuwait City, we've been waiting for you for 9 months". I thought to myself 'Wow' this guy has been through all this in his city and he welcomed every group the same way. When I went back to Kuwait in 2004 I thought about looking him up, unfortunately I never got the opportunity.
His name was Hassan Tamimi, he was an engineer at Radio Kuwait. Anyway...he had a paper US flag that he was getting signed by all the US troops he met. It was almost covered, he was a very nice man. He asked if there were any areas we wanted to see. We told him 'No, lead the way'. We visited the 'Million Dollar Mile' where there were car lots for all the high end cars, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin to name a few. Everything was destroyed on this more than a mile stretch, buildings burned, cars burned, run over by tanks, shot up by just about everything they had. The Iraqis knew they weren't going to be occupying the country so they did as much damage as they could. One of the places we visited was the Messilah Beach Hotel and Spa. There were cars in the pools, the beach had been covered in barbed wire, concertina, hedgehogs, and tall pickets. This was all to prevent an amphibious assault. We could see a lot of it because of low tide. We found grenades laying around and the Kuwaitis had been afraid to move them. We picked up the few that were laying around to take back with us to destroy them. We were given cards of membership in the Club there. The next day we went back into town hoping to hook up with him again. We found him about the same place as the day before. This time we took him a couple cases of oranges we had, we also gave him all the 'shelf stable' milk we had, and I bought a Saddam 50 Dinar bill for $20US. It was one of my treasured war trophies until I went back to Kuwait in 2004 and they were being sold for $5-$10US. I still have a couple pictures from our visit, one with a young Kuwaiti girl that was very shy but her dad picked her up and put her in the back of our open Humvee where she was at the right height for pictures. We ran into a Jordanian couple that was touring KC also. We were at the Kuwait Tower in town and the woman wanted pictures with Soldiers, so her husband took group shots and individual pictures. After the second day visiting KC we moved further northwest towards the Iraq border and never made it back into town, but we did make it to Camp Doha where we cleaned all our equipment for shipping. We were staying at Kobar Towers at the time.
We had a dog that traveled with us for a while until he bit some Kuwaiti refugee that had gotten too close to our bivouac site. He never bit a GI and even as hungry as he was he was very picky about MRE's. We gave him to a SF unit that was traveling through. When they found out he bit someone they wanted him for a guard dog. About this time we were going from place to place as we blew stuff up on the battle field. We had a 4 wheeled trailer we hooked up behind one of the tracks where we would put all of our Bedouin tents and the couch we had obtained somewhere. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies moving around like that, but the trailer came in handy when we were moving artillery rounds to stockpile them for detonation. We would use the brass on top of long U-shaped pickets and then use a sledge hammer to pound them in deep enough so the camels wouldn't knock them over when they used them as scratching posts. (See placing pickets)
FROM YOUR ENTIRE SERVICE, INCLUDING COMBAT, DESCRIBE THE PERSONAL MEMORIES WHICH HAVE IMPACTED YOU MOST?
 |
| Coffee in the Morning |
The Brotherhood, friendships, and camaraderie during deployment to combat zones.The eccentricities of people who are in danger of losing their lives on a daily basis.
This picture was taken shortly after the ground war ended. SFC Billy Tate in the middle and CPL Shaun Anders on the right. That coffee was very much needed.
WHAT ACHIEVEMENT(S) ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF FROM YOUR MILITARY CAREER? IF YOU RECEIVED ANY MEDALS FOR VALOR OR OTHER SIGNIFICANT AWARDS, PLEASE DESCRIBE HOW THESE WERE EARNED.
I was awarded a Bronze Star for Valor for actions during the opening 27 hour mission time of Operation Forsythe Park. Details of the Operation can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Operation_Forsythe_Park. This was originally to be 2 six hour missions to clear out the last pockets of Al-Qaeda in the Ramadi AOR, but after several Soldiers were injured in the opening minutes of the offensive operations by IED's that had been in place for months, and sometimes for several seasons. The Operation was plagued by sniper fire, RPG fire, and multiple and complex IED's.
I also received the Bronze Star for Meritorious Achievement, and was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries received during combat operations. My vehicle was hit by an IED between 50-100 pounds. I received injuries to my back and neck.
OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, QUALIFICATION BADGES OR DEVICES YOU RECEIVED, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE ONE(S) MOST MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND WHY?
 |
| Veterans Day 2009 |
The Sapper Tab. I spent 30 days in a school that taught us to survive and to not accept defeat during an assigned task. We were taught a higher level of leadership, to get the job done no matter what. This was a hard school at the time because it was for Engineer officers and NCO's only, no other MOS's were able to attend at the time I went through the course. Now it is open to all MOS's and genders. And the Purple Heart, the one award that no one wants to qualify for.
The picture here is of my wife and I Veterans day 2009 after being awarded the Purple Heart.
WHICH INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM YOUR TIME IN THE MILITARY STAND OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOU AND WHY?
The platoon sergeant that wouldn't let me go to the E-6 board until I had gone through the Soldier of the Month board, and the next 3 levels until I came in second place.
The Task Force commander and the Company Commander that knew I had what it took to assume
 |
| 737 TC 2nd Platoon NCO's 2004 |
the duties as platoon leader during combat operations.
The squad leader that pushed our squad to place 11th of 30 squads during Sapper Stakes in Europe 1989.
The friends that helped me see my potential.
The Soldier that pulled me up into his truck after he had been injured by an IED blast. He was more concerned about me getting shot than the blast he had just been in.
The Navy EOD Operators that worked with us and shared their knowledge.
These are just a few to name from a 25 year career.
The NCO's pictured with me here were a great team, they survived having me as a Platoon Sergeant, and then went on to further careers in the Army. A couple of them were Drill Sergeant's, and one made Command Sergeant Major. They were my squad leaders from the 737th Trans Company.
CAN YOU RECOUNT A PARTICULAR INCIDENT FROM YOUR SERVICE WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FUNNY AT THE TIME, BUT STILL MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Realizing that our front bumper was laying on the ground about 20 feet in front of us after we had been hit by and IED. My driver spotted it first and asked me what it was, I didn't know so had to ask on the net what was laying there.
 |
| This is Mr Mouse |
When we heard it was our front bumper we started laughing about it, that just shows you what kind of mental condition we were in at the time.
This picture is of the pocket of my airline seat. The little stuffed critter was given to me by a young child, I said I would look after him and I named him Mr. Mouse. Mr. Mouse survived his tour in Ramadi although he was kidnapped shortly after arriving in Iraq before we went to Ramadi. There was a short chase when the ransom was delivered, but Mr. Mouse escaped with his fur intact.
OIF Ramadi 2006-2007:
1. We were on a clearing mission one day while we were running mixed platoons with 1st and 3rd platoons. We had cleared this stretch of road that was a bit elevated and there were houses in the area. Almost like a neighborhood you would see in the states. We had cleared this stretch of road when the arm operator in the Buffalo said he had a hydraulic leak and needed to get the Spork (the Spork is the hand at the end of the arm) replaced. They had a piece of shrapnel hit a hydraulic line. It put enough of a nick in the line it was shooting out whenever it was moved. The arm was out of fluid so they had to drag it while backing up. There was a pothole in the right lane of this road we had removed an IED from. It was a really dumb place to put a charge. When we came back to finish our route, about 30 minutes later, there was a gym bag in the same hole we had already cleared with an artillery shell inside. Like I said, a really, really stupid place to put an IED. We laughed about it for a bit.
2. On one of the mixed platoon routes we found a hole that had three 82mm mortar rounds. I guess Spring Break (Navy EOD call sign) had already removed shells from this particular location and were tired of it so they placed the rounds next to this little mud building. It wasn't much bigger than 10x10, but it was used as a neighborhood hangout/market so we knew without a doubt the locals knew about this IED location. So, when EOD removed the rounds they stacked them along the side of this mud hut/market and placed a few extra blocks of C-4 against the charge to BIP it (Blow In Place). Since we had to maintain sight with the charge we couldn't move more than 50m away. Since it was Task Force Pathfinder SOP to lower our Gyrocam into their protective tub, I lowered mine so didn't see til later what had happened to my .50 cal and our ECM antenna. After the charge was BIP'd, we raised the Gyrocam to assess the area. With the all clear the gunners popped their hatches and got up on security. My gunner got on the comms and said his gun had a dent in the side and he was having a hard time charging the gun.
I got on the radio and told the maneuver unit we were supporting that we had to go back to Camp Corridor to get some weapons and antennas changed out. My gunner finally got a round chambered so I called over the net we were going to do a test fire. Nothing, nada, not even a click was heard when he pressed the butterfly. Crap, now we are for sure down a gun. We get it swapped out with a gun borrowed from a Marine unit on Camp Corregidor and the ECM antenna replaced. The Marines on Camp Corregidor rocked! No questions asked, we told them what we needed and the Gunny made it happen within a half hour; once we finally got through the Army's runaround for parts. While we were on Corregidor the rear gun truck said they had video of what had happened. Another truck did as well. A piece of shrapnel had sliced through our antenna like it wasn't there, then we saw it hit the gun and stick, although the gunner said it must have fallen out when he opened his hatch. We found out later the gun had a crack about 2" long and was no longer usable. I guess that was Karma on us?
3. Whenever we rolled out the gate we had to check in with Ramadi MCC to let them know Vix and Pax, number of vehicles and number of persons (souls) in the patrol. MCC was the Military Convoy Controller in the Ramadi area of operations. Combat patrols would go out of the wire on every weather condition but Black. There are 3 colors (red, green, black) to indicate the flight status of MEDEVAC, or Gun Ships. No convoy could travel if the status was Red, but combat patrols, route clearance patrols, and the QRF (quick reaction force) could roll out any time. There was a female controller on certain shifts, my crew said her voice sounded like honey tastes. She got to know the convoy commanders on the radio and would give us any extra intel she had without us asking. There were other units you could tell she disliked. We kept one of the radios on the common freq all the time and we would hear all the chatter til we were out of range.
One night we were doing a patrol towards Al Taqquadem (TQ). There is a large parking area that convoys would pass through from one MSR to the other. The Husky operator just happened to catch a signal so he painted the spot (water based ink spray from his detector panels) and the RG crew rolled up to investigate. Imagine our surprise when they found a Speed-Bump type of IED. This just happened to be a night we didn't have EOD with us so we had to wait for QRF EOD team to get out to us. We were less than 5 klicks from Ramadi so we were listening to the radio while waiting. I get a message from our satellite messaging system. It was Ramadi MCC wanting to know if we needed anything and that she would keep us informed about the QRF. I told her about how my guys described her voice and she said she got that a lot, she also said if the guys wanted to stop by for a visit that was just fine, but her unit was about to head back to the States. My guys discussed visiting the MCC, but didn't want to possibly ruin the memory in case the face didn't match the voice. In the end the guys decided not to stop in. That is the story of the beautiful voice of Ramadi MCC.
WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY SERVING, WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY?
 |
| Prior to deployment in 2006 |
After I came off active duty I became a long haul truck driver while in the Reserves. My wife and I drove team for almost 10 years, and our cats with us. They traveled very well.
After being injured in Iraq in 2007 I was no longer able to do the physical portion of the job that is required of an over the road truck driver. I am currently retired.
This picture was taken at a picnic shortly before our deployment to Iraq in 2006.
WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? WHAT SPECIFIC BENEFITS DO YOU DERIVE FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIPS?
I'm a member of these Organizations: The Military Order of the Purple Heart, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, 8th Infantry Division Association and The Wounded Warrior Project Alumni.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CAREER?
 |
| Transportation Company motto |
During military life you are taught discipline, orderliness, and timeliness. This really helps in the civilian world, most employers look at military members as more settled employees. As a truck driver, there are many things that were used in military life that bleed over into a civilian career. Being punctual is a big issue when you are delivering freight. This was the company motto of the 737th Trans Company. We were originally going to be security for the Theater Distribution Center in Kuwait so we didn't bring our vehicles. Our commander talked some magic and got the company into driving supplies and equipment in Kuwait, and then we started hauling fuel into Iraq, finally we were moved to Camp Cedar II in Iraq to cut down on turnaround time. The motto derived from us driving the unarmored KBR Mercedes trucks, so we drove them like we stole them. It stuck.
BASED ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY JOINED THE ARMY?
Pay attention, keep drinking to a minimum, take all the correspondence courses you can, be physically and mentally fit, and enjoy all the duty stations and countries you get sent too.
If you are stationed overseas don't be a barracks rat that never goes anywhere. Go see the sites, visit
 |
| House of Abraham, Ur, Iraq |
the eateries that are not where all the GI's hang out. The locals like to see Americans, they just don't like the 'Ugly Americans'. Travel to the countries that border where you are.
Use your time in the military to learn and don't be the couch potato that plays video games every minute of off duty time.
If they follow this advice they will be thankfull for it in the decades to come.
While at Camp Cedar Iraq we were given the opportunity to visit a local excavation site. The building that we were able climb was called the Ziggurat of Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq.
The picture below was taken inside of one of the royal crypts at the House of Ur, and the Home of Abraham, Ur. There was a local care taker who gave us a tour while we were there. He told us the history of the Ziggurat and the House of Abraham, and we were allowed to explore on our own.
I beleive there were 2 or 3 royal burial crypts. It was fairly dark in this crypt with just enough light to see what was there.
Some memories I will never forget.
IN WHAT WAYS HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU REMEMBER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FRIENDS YOU SERVED WITH.
 |
| Ezra on his favorite perch. |
After 25 years of service there are a lot of things to go through. Pictures and letters bring back lots of memories. I had to do a military biography prior to my deployment in 2004 and there are lots of dates to look up, duty stations, friends, places visited; this is a trip down many good and bad memories.
I had placed all of my flares in a sandbag I had put in one corner, but when it came time to leave our bivouac site we had to clean the area. Since I had a perfect burn pit we had the M-88 crew drive over the top to crush the roof so we could throw all the garbage in it to be burned. I had all my stuff out and had it stacked off to one side. We started the fire using C4 to make sure it started burning; so, we were all standing around the burn pit when the flares started going off. Everyone was diving for cover and the LT is screaming at me about Court Martialing me, a common occurrence from him, when I realized "Oh (expletive deleted)! I forgot about the flares!" Once we realized what was going on and that we were in no danger from an attack a lot of us started laughing about how everyone had started diving for cover, and I'm thinking to myself 'I'm just glad the grenades hadn't gone off'. I didn't get Court Martialed.
