The thing about living life in the fast lane is that you never have time for peace and quiet with your children at home. This is the life that I lived. My name is Richard. I am a 15-year veteran in the United States Army. I lived my life every day trying to stay alive while being deployed overseas away from my wife and three kids. It sucks that I am missing so many birthdays but even while I am deployed I am always finding ways to keep in touch with my children and my wife and I make sure that they know I am always thinking about them. I am actually not far from being able to retire from the Army and become a father to my children.
My oldest is going to be fifteen soon. She is an athletic young woman who has so much potential and has already received scholarships to some prestigious schools to play hoops. She is my pride and joy. My two younger boys, twins and very smart at the age of twelve, look up to their big sister. She is always there for them just as I was for my siblings growing up.
As I look around the cave at my fellow soldiers, we gather for the early morning briefing. All the men in this encampment I would gladly give my life for if their lives or the lives of their families were threatened. However, the first thing that comes to my mind every morning is my wife and kids back home.
As I adjusted the collar of my body armor, the heat inside the cave made wearing the armor tough. The sweat poured down our bodies in drenches. Some of us carried quite a bit of equipment that made the heat even more torturous.
We were currently on a mission in the middle of the hot desert mountains of Afghanistan looking for several high-ranking Taliban members that our Intel unit thought to be situated up in some caves nearby.
“What is Intel saying about the location of these insurgents, Josh?” I asked Lieutenant Sutton, who was my right hand man and my intelligence officer while out on mission.
“Intel informs me that we’re about 5 clicks south of the target,” says Josh, pointing to his map and adjusting his body armor. Jeez, it’s hot stuff to wear in this climate. You sweat like a pig in it. “They say they caught something moving near these caves less than a day ago. We are to go in. If we meet resistance, we fight back. We’ll know more after the mission is completed.”
“Thank you,” I say readjusting my armor for the millionth time. “Gentlemen, you heard the man. Let’s move out while it’s still dark, before it gets too hot, and before they spot us.”
As the men started heading over to the Humvee we had parked and hidden out of sight, I thought I caught a shimmering glimpse out of the corner of my left eye that would give any soldier the suspicion that they had been detected by a sniper.
I signal to my men to hold positions and take refuge. Just as the men are moving into better firing positions, gunfire starts roaring off around us from multiple directions.
Where in the flying fuck did these assholes come from and how in the hell did they know where we would be? Intel had informed us that the insurgents we were to track down weren’t this far south. But obviously they must have missed them.
We begin to take evasive actions and return fire but we cannot manage to figure out where the bullets are flying in from since all we seem to pick up is that the bullets are coming from several directions.
Movement off in the distance caught my eye. Using the scope on my military issued rifle, I can clearly make out what appeared to be an unmarked car and moving fast enough towards us, that it kicked up a huge cloud of dust behind it. There was no doubt in my mind that it was a suicide vehicle full of explosives. It was now a life or death moment for us.
I signaled to my buddy on my right to cover me and without waiting for a reply, scrambled for a better firing position. The noise of the firefight around me faded as I concentrated on my breathing and sighted on my target, the wheels. My finger caressed the trigger. My mind and body relaxed as I waited for the moment that felt right. I squeezed off three consecutive short bursts at the speeding vehicle, hitting the right back tire, making it spin out of control and slam hard into the side of the valley wall.
Another movement caught my eye through the sight of my rifle that looked to be one of the insurgents moving away from the group firing at us. From what I could ascertain, he was trying to get his compadres to cease fire and retreat.
My finger caressed the trigger again and squeezed off another burst of rounds towards where he was positioned hitting his friend to his right just left of the man’s heart. The rebels face was covered in blood as another round of bullets hit him in the leg, shattering his femur.
As soon as he drops to the ground, the rest of the insurgents seized fire and ran away from us. The men nearest me let off a few more bursts out of their rifles hitting several of the radicals as they are scampering away. Their leader was dead or dying from his wound. What these insurgents did not know was that my communications sergeant had just called in an air strike on their position.