I had not written in my journal for over a month, and still it will be several weeks before I make another entry. I did not want to think about what was happening anymore. I detached from it and for good reason. We made it out of Fallujah. A lot of people did not. It was hard to not see the people that we started with still around. During battle everything moves so fast and when somebody is killed or injured you have no time to stop, you just get them out of the way and hope you see them again someday, and then keep fighting.
I had not written in my journal for over a month, and still it will be several weeks before I make another entry. I did not want to think about what was happening anymore. I detached from it and for good reason. We made it out of Fallujah. A lot of people did not. It was hard to not see the people that we started with still around. During battle everything moves so fast and when somebody is killed or injured you have no time to stop, you just get them out of the way and hope you see them again someday, and then keep fighting. We were sent to Camp Ramadi where we were able to make repairs to our vehicles, re-supply and most of all get some rest and hot food. We had small temp buildings to live in that slept 10 of us. We made it our home by decorating the walls with Christmas cards and pictures of naked girls. We hung Christmas lights and even put up a tree. We had not been receiving our mail while conducting Operation Phantom Fury, so when the mail finally caught up with us, just before Christmas, it was overwhelming. There are few things in life that can make a Marine as happy as when he gets a letter at mail call. Thanks everybody.
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| Christmas Caroling |
It was different being back "inside the wire" we could use the phone, take hot showers, watch movies and relax. Everybody could sleep at the same time without somebody being up to keep watch. We woke up when we wanted to and had little to do in-between meals. We had what they call "the thousand yard stare". Not only were we being resupplied with gear and ammo but people also. Not everybody in camp had been through what we had and some had not even set foot outside the wire. I remember sitting in the chow hall eating, with only a few of the guys from my team. Not exactly sure what it was but there was an explosion. I didn't even acknowledge the blast as I was in the middle of eating, but what happened next I will never forget. I heard what I at first thought was debris landing on the roof, it was a sound like a hail storm hitting a tin roof that had just turned violent, and as I was trying to figure this all out I looked around and realized what was happening. The tables and chairs that everybody sat at to eat were all plastic folding picnic tables and outdoor cheap plastic chairs. There were probably two or three hundred people eating at that time and after the blast most of them, if not all of them fell to the ground. The sound of debris hitting the roof was not that at all but instead the scraping of the cheap plastic chairs being kicked out from under everybody as they lunged for cover. Me and the guys I was with looked at each other laughing after realizing how afraid everybody was. The joke was followed by another realization that we have been through something that has changed us, we were no longer laughing.
