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20 Oct 08
Vicinity of Patrol Base Whiskey

Everything else seemed to go silent as the moment crystallized. I could see the awful event unfolding in slow motion in my mind: the soft dirt shoulder was giving way and our middle MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle) was going to collapse into the canal.

I was already going through my mental checklist: 1. Jump in and keep our guys from drowning (pull the quick release loop on my protective vest and shed 60 pounds of body armor first). 2. Evaluate and treat injuries (assess and triage quickly – worst guy first). 3. Call in the Medevac bird (remember to pull the guys to side of the canal that the Medevac bird can land to) 4. Stay calm and in control throughout …

This all happened in about 3 seconds. Fortunately, the sequence of events I was convinced would happen didn’t happen – due to a highly unlikely coincidence.

We were on a patrol in our brigade’s area of operation and we were on a trail that we hadn’t traveled before. I wanted to see this route while the weather was still good, before rainy season sets in.

We’d already had two other incidents on this tiny trail that would’ve qualified as “Most Exciting Moment of the Day” if this one hadn’t trumped them. The first involved a low-hanging power line that shocked KC (Kevin Connaughton), who was the .50-cal. gunner in the lead truck. Don’t worry — he’s fine. We had him thoroughly checked out, including getting an EKG done on him. KC’s new nickname: Sparky.

The other incident involved driving backwards in our 40,000-pound MRAPs (with a helluva blind spot) — on a pinnacle above the canal not much wider than the tires — for a couple of hundred meters. We had crept down this canal trail for a while before it suddenly stopped. We had no alternative other than backing up until we could find a place to turn around.

We were getting close to returning to a familiar road and had one more culvert to cross when I saw the lead truck sink about two feet into the culvert crossing! It made it across safely, but I stopped the patrol and got out to assess the crossing. There was no way the other two trucks would make it. We were trapped – if it were not for an unbelievably fortunate coincidence.

Right there, in the middle of nowhere, was a scoop bucket loader with three local Iraqis. This type of expensive earth-moving equipment is a rare and precious commodity in Iraq, and it just happened to be in the EXACT place we needed it at EXACTLY the right moment. It was as if you were traveling at night in a heavy rain storm in a remote area and you had four flat tires and pull off the road to see a guy with four new tires for you in the exact size you needed.

I didn’t even have to have my interpreter come out of our vehicle to translate — the guy knew exactly what I needed and went to work repairing the culvert so we could cross. He packed down the dirt and I “ground-guided” our second vehicle across. We were now two-thirds complete but still in a precarious position.

The scoop operator went to work again, bringing in more dirt and packing it down. Once he was done I walked our third MRAP across safely. I felt like I could breathe again. I walked back to the three Iraqi men who helped us and thanked them in Arabic. I also gave them one of our Team Jedi coins.

As we drove back to our forward operating base, I thought about how unlikely it was to have to that scoop loader right there, just when we needed him.

We drove near that location not long after the incident.

The scoop loader was nowhere to be found.

Until next time, this is Jedi 6, out …

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