Personal Narrative: Bomb's Away ! Contracting In Iraq

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Title: Bomb’s Away! Contracting in Iraq Brainstorming; IED explosion, getting shot at, encountering the stand-off, fixing the vehicle, guy on the roof, masked men, big army, returning to base, getting another vehicle, training, armored vehicles, Shia vs. Kurds, being a contractor Focus points; IED, training, Iraqi people. Intro; It was mid-October 2005 in Kirkuk, Iraq; days like any other day, or so I thought. I had just finished training guys here at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Warrior in medical combat tactics. I am a contractor for the State Dept. My years of experience as a Tactical Paramedic stateside prepared me for anything, but what was about to happen, or what I was about to experience, has forever left an imprint on my life. I was one of thousands of contractors doing various jobs in Iraq. We all possess a variance in training, and we all know the dangers of…show more content…
We were taking two-armored Suburban’s escorted by two Kurdish Iraqi gun trucks. (Machine-gun mounted, unarmored quad-cab mini truck) There were more guys for me to train at that location. Sulaymaniah is Kurdish country up near the Iranian border, whereas Kirkuk has a mixture of Shiites and Kurds. I was in the lead Suburban along with my driver and Interpreter riding left rear. We had a gun-truck forward and aft in our four-vehicle motorcade. We were about 10 minutes outside of FOB Warrior when my life-altering event happened. One moment I am staring outside the windshield observing for anything out of the ordinary, and the next I am feeling the effects of being hit with an IED. (Improvised Explosive Device) The bomb exploded sending concrete and shrapnel into the left front and side of our Suburban, rocking the vehicle near the teetering point. Daylight turned to nighttime in the blink of an eye, only to return to the horrors of war. Looking ahead, I noticed the gun truck sustain the concussion from the blast, sending glass shards into

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