A Morning of All Mornings

It was June 30th. My unit and I were on the tail end of a long deployment. After a long restless night, my platoon and I were called out to scout for an enemy weapon that had been causing havoc on the near by Forward Operating Base (FOB). The road out to location was a long and boring crawl. The roaring sound of the engine mixed in with warm rattle of various military equipment filled my ears. The annoying chuckle of my platoon sergeant was a bitter slap in the face on top of it all. We dismounted from the vehicles about 4 kilometers from our target. My dusty boots collided with the earth's dirty surface. The smell of wet grass lingered in the air from the previous evening's showers. The air was thick with humidity and the fumes of diesel burning by the trucks we just departed, making it a chore in itself just to breath. Each squad within our platoon silently formed their wedges as we began the trudge to our objective. My body armor and aid bag weighed heavy on my shoulders causing me to hunch forward to help relieve the ache. As I passed through the swaying green wall of brush my sleeves became damp making the heat more intense. As we walked through the open field an eerie silence came over the world. Time seemed to stand still. Our world was thrown into chaos for a split second as every sound in the world seemed to clash all at once. Darkness covered my eyes for what seemed like minutes. I came through with a piercing ring tearing through my ears muffling every sound outside of my own head. I could hear that someone was yelling at me and that they were close but I could not tell what he was saying. My eyes were blurred and the world seemed to spin while I was the only permanent fixture. The other soldier was directing me across the field of fire where another soldier had been wounded and was in need of my assistance. I instantly staggered to my feet rushing toward the downed soldier as quickly as I possibly could. The soldier was laying motionless in a dark red pool of syrupy liquid which streamed freely from his arm. His blood was slippery on my hands as I began to apply his bandage to stop the bleeding. The treatment was routine and was finished with little to no conscious thought. The years of training sent my body into autopilot. I drug the soldier out of the ditch with every once of energy I had left. We both stumbled to safety until the fire fight was over. The walk back to the vehicles was a quick. My stomach was in knots the whole way back to our base. The first thing I remember the doctor saying to me during my examination was "Happy Birthday".  I chuckled, "I turned 22 today sir" The other soldier lived and was able to meet his newborn baby girl for the first time three weeks later.