Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. We didn't stop to check for vital signs or corpses. — 2 years ago
We were ambushed twice, driving into Iraq. First time, my lt. didn’t even want me to stick my rifle out of the window. I was expecting an attack. I suppose he wasn’t. But we were ambushed ten minutes later.
I fired three shots, my weapon jammed, and I then fired the yellow smoke grenade to mark the position of the enemy sniper. I never stopped driving as I did this. My lieutenant was shouting at me to keep driving. Duh. Sir, what the fuck do you think I’m going to do? We couldn’t go faster than maybe 25, 30 mph, since we were going through bottlenecks and 135 degree turns in the city, passing over a canal, turning again north toward Baghdad. I saw bullets strike the pavement to my right about a metre away. Everything seemed to be slow motion, but I was concentrating and reacting too close and fast to feel any fear at the time. I remember praying as I drove and shot. I remember feeling with my left hand after I set my rifle back on the dash and drove with the right, to get another grenade and load the launcher while I kept driving. My lieutenant kept screaming into the radio microphone, alternately listening, and telling me “Drive, Creighton, drive!” Duh, sir. No shit.
Not one of my company was killed. I think a driver and a sergeant of Bravo Company were killed. Or one was killed and another wounded. This was two or three nights before SFC Paul Smith was killed in that attack at the Airport.
Copyright 2006 by cafegroundzero.
