Luck Worn Thin

“PATHFINDER MIKE THIS IS PATHFINDER ONE-SEVEN”- the initial call was quick and frantic. I could barely make out the transmission; regardless it made my blood chill and the hair on my neck stand up. “PATHFINDER MIKE THIS IS ONE-SEVEN!” This transmission came across a little more clearly. The urgency in his voice was mixed in with a little fear and sounded frantic. Now time began to slow down. The call was made for Pathfinder Mike a couple times until someone else had to relay. After what seemed an eternity but was actually only mere minutes the communication started to flow more smoothly. “Pathfinder 1-7 this is Pathfinder Mike go ahead.” “WE NEED EVAC NOW- REPORTING ONE CASUALTY GUN SHOT WOUND TO THE FACE DUE TO SNIPER FIRE OVER!” His voice is cracked and urgent almost pleading. “Fuck!” I think it’s happened it finally happened. The worst scenarios are running over and over in my mind. It was mid afternoon and I had just assumed guard duty in an OP on the roof when I heard the frantic call over the Radio. The name of the soldier comes over the radio. This soldier had recently come back from r-n-r. He was home for the birth of his daughter. “HE IS CONSCIENCE HE IS TALKING BUT HE IS BLEEDING BAD WE NEED EVAC NOW!!” The other platoons that were down go into reaction mode. A QRF is mobilized in minutes and they blast out the gate and haul ass to rescue our down comrade. “WE ARE TAKING SMALL ARMS FIRE!” To the guys on the roof watching their man bleed out it must have seemed like an eternity but things were moving rather quickly. “WE NEED TO GET HIM OUT OF HERE NOW!! WE NEED EVAC!!” The QRF reach the location and speed the soldier away to the nearest FOB. From there he is flown to a higher treatment facility. From what we’ve been told he was moved to Germany and is waiting to go home but he is going to make it. The bullet was of small caliber and entered and passed through his neck thankfully missing vital arteries. My good friend who was there told me the incident later, and a long with another good friend who was there this is what happened.

That Platoon was set up in an OP overlooking a road. My friend and the Soldier were talking about what they were going to do when they got home. A shot rang out and everyone hit the ground. My friend looked over to see the Soldier down holding his neck. “FUCKKKKKK” the Soldier yelled. My friend jumped onto and began to administer first aid, reaching into the Soldier’s first aid pouch to put a dressing on the wound. The entry wound was in the neck and it had a solid stream of blood pouring out if it. “Ah fuck!” my friend was thinking. “He got hit in an artery!” That wasn’t the case but I wasn’t there and if I had been in that situation I would’ve thought the same thing. They moved the Soldier down to the stairs and as they exited the building onto the street they began to receive small arms fire. They returned fire, and waited for evac. As they waited my friend noticed that the collar of the Soldiers body armor was frayed. That’s when he noticed the exit wound. He then applied a bandage to the other side of the soldier’s neck. The medevac arrived and sped off with the wounded soldier. The other Soldiers had to wait for the QRF to arrive to leave the sight of the ambush. The QRF pulled up seconds behind the EVAC. The Soldiers then mounted up with the QRF. The command called out that the shot had most likely originated from across the road which was a good 500m. My friend told me he believed it was a ground shot from no more than 50 meters. The thing is we always think that snipers take their shots from a good distance but this is not always the case. Along with this short sightedness we fail to look any closer than 300m so the sniper actually has time to get away. The sniper’s here tend to shoot from ground platforms like vehicles from distances within 50m of the target. Regardless the QRF went to the building in question and cordoned it off and searched the building and came up with nothing.

The rest of the time at the COP went by slowly. We stayed for 5 days this time. The men were tired and miserable. I guess that’s why they call us Grunts. We all knew that what had happened to that Soldier was bound to happen sooner or later. I was wondering myself when our luck was going to run out. It seems like we still have a little left. The incident brought that thought to the fore front of everybody’s minds. When will it happen? Who will it be? All of the other Companies in the Battalion have lost Soldiers. Charlie has been fortunate as of yet. We lost one but not forever he was lucky. I hope that he gets to stay state side with his second lease on life. Though from what I have been told about him he won’t want to. But who knows? We can only hope that Charlie Company can make it through the rest of the deployment unscathed. We all knew the inherent risks of the profession in which we voluntarily chose to perform. Until next time.
RuarkOUT!