[ozdog]

Iraq, March 23, 2003

First night of enemy contact after a 2 day truck through the desert, start to hit the cities in Iraq. My first reaction to getting shot at by a known enemy at 2200hr. The only thing i hear is Tink, Tink, Tink. OH SHIT, start to return fire, and all is well, thanks to the Air Force.

24 March, around 1700, the day the skies turned orange, again enemy contact. This time we are feeling pretty good cause we fought till sun up the day prior, and zero sleep, no casualties, we are living large. Contact, East, Out. Enemy to the east, get ready, here they come again. Next thing i hear over the radio is shit I'm hit. This is a M1A1 Abrhams Tank, nothing can destory this thing. Next transmition is oh shit, im hit, another M1A1 is hit. Next transmission is I am on fire, and i can not put it out, we are going to button up. When they closed the hatches, they brought the fire in with them, and now the tank crewmen are on fire. All i hear over the radio are screams for help. During this time we are all now in enemy contact and he is fucking us up. and all you hear on the radio is guys on that tank crew screaming for help. The other tank gets on the radio and starts screaming that they too are on fire, but not the crew.

We realize that we have kicked open a hornets nest of something that we know that we can not fend off at the moment. As we turn around to get out of what we opened, i passed the 2 M1A1's on fire, and knowing that the crew was stuck inside, and still hearing them scream over the radio for help. Then i hear that M3A2 Bradley is now stuck have 30-50 pissed off bubbas shooting at them, and they can not move, and need to be evacuated ASAP. We turn around to grab up the crew members from the stuck Bradley.

We can not stop at the tanks right away, cause the fire has started to cook off the ammo on top of the tank, and it is not safe for anyone to get close with out possibly loosing life. We must pull back, and re establish a some sort of security, and keep faith for those in those 2 tanks.

Cook off complete, we rush to those crews and pull them out, still alive, and suffered smoke inhalation, and burns. While all this is happening the forth of july is also happening cause we have called artillery, MLRS, and the AF all on this area to wipe out whatever was there.

There is happiness and sadness to this story. Everyone lived. But living day to day hearing those screams of the men, and boys that you fight side by side at times is death. Though i still get a chance to say hey to them, those screams never vanish.