I don't think the American people have gotten the full story on what happened over in Iraq and what is still going on today. This is one of my stories from my time serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Army Infantry Specialist in Baghdad.
First, as far as general lack of support, our unit really didn't have much support from the active duty component. We had to drive out to their compound at the Iraqi Olympic stadium to STEAL -- not receive -- our bottled water. Our body armor was just a flack vest.
Just so you don't think that not having water in 100+ degree weather was my only problem, here's another story, about the day I was seriously injured last year. During a routine patrol my squad was called to a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) [hidden roadside bomb] that was spanning a bridge near the mosque that we called "the evil mosque." This is the type of stuff we did daily.
[Above: An example of an IED, this one partially buried in a road a few miles south of Hit. Photo from Brian Fedde]
Turned out that it was just some wires that were tied into the street light so that the Iraqi family or families could get electricity into their home.
So we continued our patrol and went back through an area that we had just patrolled near our old compound at the Ministry of Labor. The traffic was backed up due to four lanes turning to two lanes. We were stuck in stand still traffic--like rush hour in NYC. People were looking at us and kids were waving. The lead vehicle moved about 5 meters and my trail vehicle pulled up. What happened in the next 5 seconds was like a lifetime.
While scanning the rear sector of our patrol from the turret, a bomb went off in front of my M998 (HMMV). Blood sprayed my goggles and Kevlar helmet.
At first I thought that my driver was hit and checked to see. To my surprise it was MY OWN blood! The shellshock caused me to lose my balance and fall backward into the hatch. All that I can recall after that was looking at our interpreter and seeing him flee from our vehicle. Later, the guys from my squad said that they had to hit two Iraqi vendor stands to get us back to our battalion compound. I just thank God I'm still around to tell this story. Lots of guys haven't been so lucky.
I'm not telling this story for pity. I just think the public should know about what life is like for the guys over there now. Hopefully stories like these will help people make good decisions about this war, and future wars.
SPC Petersen was awarded the Purple Heart for this incident.
Check out this video of a patrol similar to the one that SPC Petersen told about: Low (56k) High (256k).
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