I got blown up!
 

Today we were on QRF (Quick Reaction Force) until 0400 the next day. We were hoping nothing would happen that would give us reason to come outside the wire. As expected, we were wrong. There were reports that there was a suspected IED (Improvised Explosive Device) out on ****** road. We were on standby until further notice. About 10-15 minutes later, we were called out. We loaded up our weapons at the test fire range just prior to the gate. Afterwards, we rolled out. We were driving for what seemed like an hour. We crossed a bridge and came to a stop next to some Hesco barriers. Then we turned around. Supposedly it was to throw "them" off our trail. We went in the exact opposite direction that we had been going in to begin with. Pretty soon, we were traveling along a road that was not commonly driven on. However, a convoy had passed through earlier that day. There was a sheep herder moving his sheep along the side of the road. We were cruising along at a blazing fast 20 mph, looking for wires and other various oddities when we came upon a ditch. Thinking nothing of it, we attempted to cross. We had only barely gotten our lead tires in when BOOM. The truck was thrown 2-3 feet in the air and landed ass-end first into the hole. Pieces of the hood and the whole rhino mount were flying through the air. The air intake manifold was twisted and mangled. The engine was destroyed and leaking fluids all over the ground. The gunner had been knocked off of his strap and slammed his shins into the radio console. The .50 cal had been knocked off it's mount and landed next to the gunner. The first thing I thought when I heard the explosion was, 'I'm dead', but when I realized I still had all of my appendages and all of my blood was still inside of me, I thought, 'WOOHOO!!'. Shortly afterwards, we scanned our sectors and then dismounted. We surveyed the local area and found the command wire. It was later determined we had been hit by a 122mm artillary round, along with ~5 lbs. of HME (Homemade Explosive). We also found the dirty sons of bitches that had done this to us. 5 of them, all them had dirty hands when we screened them. Yes, it was a good day for us. We went out for something routine, got sidetracked, and we nabbed some fucking assholes in the process. The one thing that I found really funny was before the explosion there were two mules grazing in the grass not 15 feet from where we were. After the explosion, those two mules were still there, grazing as if nothing happened.

*Name removed for security reasons.

I think you'd probably get a better response for this in your journal. If you don't have one, you can start one! Just click the "ChocoJournal" link at the top of the page! All the settings and everything are at the bottom of that page. Happy journalling!

Man, I was wondering what to do with this thread too. I thought it would have been in bad taste to close it but I guess it IS more journalistic material.

It's a stinkin' cool story to live through and talk about, but yeah. Journal stuff. ^_^