Well running in the Army is the American past time thing to do. We do it whether we are at home, Army Schools, or even at War in Iraq as I am right now. As we all know, Mortars come to us at any day and at any hour of the day. We don’t know.
As I do my daily exercise in the evening, I decided to run that evening. I ran through the inskirts of our FOB. Then as my direction would allow, I could either turn left, go straight as I usually do, or just turn around and go back to finish my run. If I go back the run would only be 2 and half miles. I wanted to run longer since I’m training for Drill Sergeant’s School once I come back from Iraq and leave Hawaii. That day I decided to run 4 miles so I took the left. I have heard from people about that route in which I was taking. This is suppose to be a dangerous route since there is a gate there. There are even no more barriers of concrete to protect us from snipers. We could even see the Iraqi kids by the fence line. Yes, right by the fence line. I wasn’t scared since I ran this route before just once before when we had the greater American Aloha run here in Iraq. Anyways, I’m running down the road looking to my left with caution. There are no concrete barriers to my left. I could see the fence line and outside the fence line. Who knows who is out there watching this FOB and me as I run this evening on 30 May 2007. Well, I kept running passing everything in site. I saw the Airforce Security Forces in their Humvees all pass me doing their regular rounds. Then I could see the Dummy tower in which I passed. Coming up then was another Guard tower which actually was manned by real people(LOL) and the Jail. Still the fence line I see, remember the fence line cause I will go back to it later. So I will be home in just like 5 more minutes from my run. So I am home now laying down on my bed cause I’m tired from my 4 mile run. Well, 30 minutes had passed since I came back home and there was like 3 Booms. I’m like WTF. This late at night. Don’t these insurgents want to sleep. It is around like 10:15PM. Next thing—Alarm Red on the speaker. Then next day, I hear one of the mortars hit by the fence line I’m mentioned. I was just in awed since I just came back from my run 30 min prior. If I would have ran 30 min later that same day, I probably wouldn’t be here today writing this. This to me was a close call cause I wouldn’t have survive if that mortar landed while I was running. I will still run no matter what……………………….
