The
sun was high over our heads as I stood in the turret of the RG-31 Mine
Resistant Vehicle. Our platoon had been tasked with conducting route clearance,
or clearing the improvised explosive devices, from the roadways of Sadr City,
Iraq. The route was named ‘Bravo’ and we had stopped at its entrance to await
further instructions from our higher command. My vehicle was the lead gun truck
so I had an unobstructed view of this once grand city. The streets were flooded
with water from a ruptured water line creating an image that we were about to
drive ourselves into the Euphrates River. Several buildings lining the streets
were burning and shattered lending me a feeling that Satan had only half
constructed his hellish domain before we arrived. I noticed that there was not
a soul walking the sidewalks for the rough mile to the next intersection and
voiced my concern to my vehicle commander.
“Yeah? So?” He said
annoyingly.
“So, if they ain’t
walking the streets then there is probably an I.E.D. or two out there. Or maybe
under the water.” I shouted over the sound of our running vehicle.
“Reed, there are
I.E.D.’s all over this city. That is why we are here. Just make sure you find
them before they get you. And watch them roof tops and windows for snipers.
Second platoon said there is an ol’ boy out here with a .50 cal sniper rifle popping
off gunners so keep your head low.”
I
shook my head and lightly kicked the back of his seat to show that I
acknowledged his orders. I stood silently scanning the empty streets and
watched the billowing clouds of smoke climb from the market buildings towards
the heavens. Months of trash was piled along the curbing and in some places
five feet high providing a perfect hiding place for the enemy to hide their
I.E.D.’s. My nose was saved from this horrid smell only by the slight breaks of
diesel that wafted from my vehicle. For the first time I noticed the emptiness
in the pit of my stomach; a place that normally would harbor a family of
butterflies to dance and let me know that I was not comfortable with my
situation. This situation somehow seemed different; more deadly, more life
threatening than any of the other I had experienced in combat. My hands had
begun to shake, the sweat poured from my body, tickling little trails across my
torso and down my legs. The city had gone from being just another mission to a tomb
of certain death that I could not escape. The anticipation was eating me alive.
Frantically,
I turned my head from side to side, expecting to find an IED or more correctly
an EFP (explosion formed projectile) nestled like a viper next to my vehicle
poised ready to strike and kill me, yet I found the opposite. There, among the
ruins of a building, stood a small yellow flower; much in shape and color of a
sunflower. The brightness of its pedals seemed more extreme in contrast of the
grey bricks that lay as its neighbors. In that flower, I found comfort and I
smiled. See, my wife’s favorite flower was the sunflower and in seeing that
flower I caught a glimpse of the many smiles I had brought to her face when I
would surprise her with one of those gems. The emptiness in my stomach began to
ease. As I let my eyes gaze up from my wife’s flower I found that there was two
white boards nailed in the shape of a cross leaning against the far wall of the
rubble. I could not remove my eyes from that cross and found myself once again
comforted; this time by the sweet hands of God. It wasn’t clear if I would make
it out of that trip alive but at that time there was only one thing I wanted. I
quietly thanked God for yesterday, today, and hopefully tomorrow, and asked him
to comfort my wife while I ventured into Hell...
