April 10th, 2009. A day I want to forget but I know I never will. On this day my platoon lost five brave, heroic men I have ever known. We were on our first day of doing a recon mission of our new AO to help a unit from 1st Cavalry division to clear some areas of Mosul of insurgents. As we were getting ready to head onto the MSR, a dump truck breached our convoy and exploded with over 10,000 lbs of explosives, catastrophically destroying my MRAP. This is the one I normally drive, but since my squad leader went on leave just three days prior, I took over the squad and moved into the commanders seat of his truck. Men who I had spent the last year working, living and playing with were taken away from us in literaly seconds. The pain, sadness and anger I feel are completely undescribable. I cannot help but thinking that I was merely three days away from dying. I have been introduced to my own mortality and the fact that I am still alive is again a testament that God is watching over me.
Today we sent them home on the plane. I hope that my brothers in arms are in a better place and that they are looking down upon us as we do what we can to catch the sub-humans who are responsible for this.
Soon we will have the memorial service for these men. We are not looking forward to this at all. This will be the hardest day of our lives.
Most importantly, I also want to say that my heart and prayers go out to the families of these fine men. I know that they are experiencing a pain that I will probably never know.
Brian, Gary, Jason, Bryce, Eddy, I love you guys, you will be missed by so many.