The Sounds of War It has been 10 years since I spent a year in Iraq during 2004 and 2005. Also spent some time in Afghanistan 2005 and 2006. Watching American Sniper about Chris Kyle has brought back memories of the sounds of war. Our camps were protected by 12 ft. concrete walls, sand bags, hesko baskets and armed guards. Our greatest threat was mortars, rockets, and indirect small arms fire. In some cases VIED, or car bombs, February 18th 2004 before I arrived in Iraq our camp was hit by two suicide VIED bombers. I have numerous picture of the carnage it caused. Thankfully I was not there at that time. The second week in country we came under a rocket attack and the rockets fell just over our barricade walls and it rattled the camp pretty good. For the remainder of the year I would hear mostly just the sounds of war. Nightly machine gun fire.Sometimes setting in a bunker hearing a firefight just outside the camps walls. Bombs close and bombs in the distance. One time the blast was close enough to feel the concussion hit your chest and see the fire rise above the walls. The helicopters constantly coming and going, the C-130 gunships providing cover, sometimes jets would come in low bank sharply and set off flares as a warning to those trying to come in. Sounds of things you could not see. Occasionally sounds of things you could see, like an illumination mortar being shot into the sky and watch it slowly falling until the light fades out. On my last convoy out of Iraq I seen what I had been hearing and the aftermath it left behind. For a journey of 60 to 80 miles through the back roads into Baghdad from Al Hilla we followed our US Army military police escort to Camp Victory in Baghdad and it was an adventure to say the least. Thousands of contractors died and were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan inside the camps and on convoys. We were the fuel that drove the war machine, we were the food and water that fed our soldiers, we were a comfortable bed and air conditioned building to relax in from the war all around us. We were KBR, Flour, Dynocorp and many many others the military contracts to go to war with. I never met Chris Kyle but I met thousands like him and it feels good to know after a firefight or from a tiring patrol a soldier who made it back to camp could shower, he or she could eat a good meal and they could try and sleep in an air conditioned tent or building that had electricity, running water and comfortable cot or bed. The next day many times they were loaded up and headed back out the gate and you would say a prayer for them and hope they come back or make it to where they where going safely. Sometimes we heard that the convoy that just left came under fire and some were killed and wounded. We never seen them again most of the time. My memories are of the senses you can not experience in pictures below like heat, the smells, the scenes not shown, the dust we tasted in our mouths and the things we touched and the Sounds of War, Can You Hear It? I Can.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 05:32:21 +0000
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