“Imagine not having any rules. Imagine not having to suffer the consequences of breaking the law. Imagine that you could do whatever you wanted to do, and no cops could arrest you. That’s chaos… If I had to describe war in just one word, it is chaos, pure unforgiving chaos, and everyone gets wrapped up in its’ evil…” SSG Craig E. Patterson
It was quiet the rest of the trip to Najaf. Most cities and towns in Iraq start with Ah. Ah Najaf, Ah Samawah, Ah this, Ah that. So when I say Najaf, I mean Ah Najaf. Like I said it was a quiet trip. Not a peaceful one. You can’t have peace not knowing if you are going to die any second. The wind is starting to pick up. It’s getting dark earlier than normal.
We approach Najaf and the halt the convoy. They have contact with a scud launcher. It’s still operational and it has a huge scud missile on the back. It’s abandoned though, like a lot of equipment we were seeing. The convoy remains halted while they disable the launcher up front. The highway we were sitting on is much like an interstate. There were 2 lanes going one way, 2 lanes going the other, with a grassy median in between.
Our armored vehicles just plowed through the guard rails as we took up positions on each side of the highway. We ran over a lot of things actually, if it was in the way, we ran it over. Speed was of the essence. We didn’t have time to go around everything, look for other routes. We had to move and move now. So, we moved pretty much anywhere we wanted to.
A couple hours went by as we got into position. Our unit was directly in front of the bridge that crossed the Euphrates River. The Dam complex was about 1 kilometer to the east. There was a little access road that went to the dam. Our half troop was supposed to recon the access road and set up positions at the dam. Movement was halted though as we got hit by a massive sand storm. The sun was setting and we could barely see anything.
Minutes later it was pitch black. When I say it was pitch black I mean it was pitch black. You couldn’t see 6 inches in front of you. If you tried to look at your watch by using the indiglo, you couldn’t see it. There was no light, at all. Thermals and night vision were worthless. Thermals don’t see through dust. Night vision works by magnifying light, since there was no light, they didn’t work, at all. Now the technology that makes us so superior fighting in the dark, was pretty much worthless. We used it anyways though; it gave me a feeling of security. False security is better than none at all.
Machine gun fire was sounding here and there. We were hoping that the Iraqis wouldn’t fight in the storm, but we forget that this is their home, they’re used to it. I was feeling kind of helpless. The only thing I did was keep my hand on the triggers. I kept my hatch closed. My BC hatch was open and he was pulling near security. He’s also the master gunner. That means if any of the Bradley’s main guns go down, he has to fix them. Well, you can guess what happened next. A Bradley behind us got a dry bolt seizure. That happens when there’s not enough lubrication on the bolt, and the bolt gets hot. Well hot metal swells, and then gets stuck. It’s one of the worst malfunctions you can get. He had to leave and fix it.
After he left I just kept staring at his open hatch. There were reports that Iraqis were trying to climb on our tanks in the stand storm. Again, I just kept staring at the open hatch. I couldn’t stand up; I had to be on the gun. I couldn’t close his hatch, because he might have to jump in real fast. So I pulled out my 9mm Berretta, pulled the hammer back, and held it up, right in the open hatch. I scanned and pointing my pistol at the open hatch at the same time.
I couldn’t believe how dark it was. It was like being in hell. It was hot, scary, and completely dark. My BC came back to the Bradley, when he climbed in he was like hey watch out! He didn’t get mad though, he didn’t blame me. After he got in he radioed the rest of the unit and told them to make sure they let people know if they are going to another vehicle. Soon after that, the commander announced over the radio for everyone to stay in their vehicle unless he gives them permission to leave. It was probably a good idea. After all, Iraqis were crawling around in this stuff.
We spent the rest of the night, sucking down sand, looking into nothing, being paranoid. I wondered to myself; how long could this last for? We didn’t say too much that night. We were tired. I got to go down first that night. I was glad too because I was exhausted. I crawled in the back of the Bradley and stripped down to my underwear and just laid there covered in sweat. Every now and then you could hear the sound of the wind and the sound the sand made blowing against the vehicle. Sometimes a bullet would ping off the side of the Bradley. I just closed my eyes and prayed that I would dream about something besides here.
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