The Long Way Home

The Long Way Home
(Operation Desert Storm)



A soldier's fate after being in the middle of an explosion in Iraq

The location is in the middle of an active war in Iraq. My job is NCOIC of fuel operations, (POL) , thus far me and my men are keeping the company supplied with fuel for the vehicles to be able to move on an instant notice, without fail, our lives depended on it. My company is 92nd Engineers, out of Fort Stewart, Georgia.

We were on the move, the fuel was getting low.The Battalion was beginning to panic, the enemy, the Iraqi forces were closing in on us.The Battalion was finally able to find a fuel checkpoint. Now my OIC, a 1st lieutenant got the call, fuel was available!.

"SGT P, how much fuel do we have?", he asked me.

"Sir we are low, maybe enough to keep going for a few more hours," I informed him.

Because of the war we could not be sure how far our fuel would last, the only thing that we knew was that we could not afford to be caught in the middle of a cross fire with Iraqi forces without fuel, then we would be sitting ducks with no way out. I could not let that happen.

"SGT. P, a checkpoint, about a 100 miles from here, about a three hour drive, has fuel available. Do you think you can make it?" he asked me now, his concern being honest and sincere.

"Sir, the company and the lives of our men and women depend on me, and my successful fuel pick up...there must be a way to make it, let me see the map," I replied. Together we studied the map.

"I'll be taking my two most experienced fuel handlers with me. We will be in three fuel trucks, each holding 1200 gallons of fuel. Sir, I'll be using your driver to drive my vehicle while I control the map. Specialist Hardy and PFC Hughes will be following me in two other fuel trucks. I will leave PVT Smith back here to support the company in my absence with the fuel we have on hand. Don't worry, we'll get it done!" I assured him. His approving smile and his firm handshake said more than his words would have. He knew that my men and I would make it happen, this was not the first time that I had sent out for 'mission impossible' and came back with the fuel to keep us moving. Specialist Hardy was one of my best men and a good friend, his girl friend was in the company, 92nd Engineers, Medical platoon. Her name was PFC, McGee. She too was an excellent soldier and a great friend. Before we set out on our mission, she approached me.

"SGT P., could I ride along with Hardy on the fuel pick up?" she asked. Knowing that it could never hurt to have a medic close bye and that her request was not made to take advantage in an unprofessional way, I had no problem with that.

"No problems Specialist McGee, as long as your Platoon Sargent is alright with it, it's fine with me," I assured her.

We left the company, the POL tankers pulling out in the sand. I was in the lead vehicle with the LT's driver operation the vehicle while I controlled the map and communication device to get us to the checkpoint. The distance seemed far, it was already around 16:00hrs, it gets dark in the desert between 1800 and 1900, leaving one in a diffuse twilight zone, causing things to appear far different than in daylight, until darkness covers everything. This was the first day of March.

Being in this type of environment is what separates the men from the boys. Was I scared? Darn right, I was!

The Iraqi desert seems endless long, as if, once you've entered, you will never be able to find your way out.In my review mirror I could see in the distance a unit of vehicles behind me, the heat waves from the sand that was surfing from the heat and dust made it hard for me to determine how far the distance to this unit actually was, and mainly, were the unit friend or foe? I had no way to be sure. I did not know what to believe, my mind was running at high speed, leaving me to imagine the worst of all things. Even if we encountered a friendly unit, it was not said that they would realize right away that we were not part of the Iraqi forces. I knew we had to keep going, the faster, the better. We picked up speed, to leave the other unit as far behind as we possibly could.

As we stayed on a steady pace, the desert surroundings began to close in on us, we were approaching Iraqi bunkers, I could tell by the vehicle's positions and the main gun which proceeded from the bunkers in our direction.

My heart began to pound, what if these bunkers were live, they would blow us away. To my great dismay, more and more of them showed up as we proceeded. Wires that lead from different checkpoints in the desert were in my path. Should we drive over them or turn around?

We had to keep going one way or the other, our people depended on us to fulfill our mission, our own lives depended on it as well as those we left behind, awaiting our return.

Lucky for us, the Iraqi units that were positioned in the bunkers had been destroyed earlier by a hell fire bomb attack by US forces. Burning smoke still came from some of the destroyed tanks.

We finally made it to the fuel checkpoint as we passed a US military camp set up in the middle of the desert. A feeling of relief went through my body as we arrived at the fuel point. The only thing I wanted to do now was get my fuel tankers topped off and get back on the road, before it got all the way dark.

I had been lost in the desert on numerous occasions in the night on fuel runs before the active war, now since we were at war, I did not want to risk it! It would be bad enough to go through the diffuse twilight for a long stretch, but to encounter complete darkness would not be helpful at all and might cause more trouble than we would be able to handle. Without further delay we got on our way.

The fuel pickup was a success, but what's was about to happened in the next hour would change my life forever!

We were headed back to our main body, we passed the US forces unit that were set up on the left side of the road. Dark was fast approaching...

As we geared slightly to the left in an attempt to by pass the possible trip wires in the desert, we spotted a huge unknown object in the middle of our travel. I could not identify what is was. I decided to stop my small convoy and recon the area before we proceeded. The LT's driver Specialist Miller, myself, and Specialist Hardy started walking through the area, I observed a lot of shiny, strange objects in our path, they were scattered to the left and right, so I decided to patrol ahead of my men, warning them to be very cautious and to stay behind.

I was wearing ear plugs to protect my ears from the loud sound of the 5 ton Diesel fuel tanker I was riding in. I heard an explosion, my ears were ringing loudly, I looked in the direction of my men, ice cold fear clutching my heart. To lose one of these great soldiers, I would not be able to bear it!

I stared at Specialist Hardy, while he stared at me. I quickly surfed around in the direction of our parked vehicles, than I once again looked in the direction of Hardy, who had the strangest expression on his face, but this time, he began to fade out of my vision. I wondered why he faded, what had happened to him? My ears were still ringing, and I slowly realized that it was not Hardy, who was fading, it were my eyes, I had trouble seeing. I looked down at my body, what I saw would last in my mind forever.

Through the brown desert Khakis red blood was seeping, covering both of my legs completely. I was Hit!

I stared in the direction of Hardy, again, this time a slight fear going through my brain, but still I did not understand. Thinking quickly, I gestured in the direction of my vehicle, I wanted to run back to my truck and take myself to the unit we had recently past in the desert. I knew that something was not right, something had happened to me and I had to get help, somehow, somewhere. Hardy's lips were moving, obviously forming words, but I could not hear them.

When I turned in an attempt to run towards my truck, my legs gave out and I fell in my tracks, I could not move my legs, my eye sight was still coming and going, I had lost too much blood. The only thing that I remember after that was hearing Hardy yell at McGee, she was still in Hardy's POL truck, her military specialty, a "Medic". Hardy was yelling 'SGT P is down...'

She ran towards me, where I was lying on the ground, somehow her feet missing the explosives that had just taken me out.

McGee started to work with me on the ground, Hardy was yelling at Miller to jump in one of the fuel trucks and get to the unit we had recently passed for help. McGee, thinking quickly, put pressure dressings in place as much as she could to slow down the bleeding. Then she gave me some shots of morphin. That's the only thing that had kept me alive, God I'm glad she came along...

I had lost too much blood, my body was going into shock!

Within a few minutes Miller had reached the US forces unit. Luckily, they were a military police unit, equipped with medivac personnel and helicopters. Just when I started to pass out, I heard the sound of a helicopter, then felt the pressure of the rotors in the air, felt the dust... Within seconds two men were standing over me, I were losing conciousnes, I heard one of the men yell, don't let him go to sleep. My mouth was so dry that my tongue stuck to my top of my mouth, I had to have some water before I suffocated, I asked for some. One of the soldiers gave me a couple of sips with the intent of not letting me drink too much. I still needed more, I began to strangle on my dryness, I pleaded for more. One of the soldiers gave me more.

I began to flash back. I remembered once seeing a man get shot six times with a 22 caliber pistol while in a fight with another man before I joined the military. While he was lying on the ground he asked one of the people standing there observing could they get him a pillow because his head was on the concrete of the streets. So knowing I could not have one, I still asked for a pillow. One of the soldiers standing there gave me his Field Jacket to go under my head. I dozed off and went to sleep.

When I awoke, I was in a helicopter, I could hear the pilot and the co-pilot talk. The helicopter was flying low to the ground, I could look over out the window and see the desert, I found out later the helicopter was flying low to go undetected by the Iraqi radar. I went back to sleep, when I awoke again my vision was going in and out, I was trying to focus my eyes, I could not remember what had happened.

A while later, a military nurse was standing over me, she was talking to me, I could not understand what she was saying. It sounded strange.

I tried to remember my name, but I could not. My brain was focusing on my mouth to speak, to form words. It seemed to take forever, but then the words came out...

"Who am I?" I asked, not having the slightest idea, who I was, where I was, and why was I here, and what had happened. My memory had went blank from the whole ordeal.

"Your name is SGT P, you were badly injured in a bomb explosion in Iraq. You are now in Saudi Arabia, the last eight hours you were being operated on, we might have saved your legs." The nurse explained to me.

I could not feel my legs, they could not have been there, nothing could have been there. But it did not matter, nothing mattered. All I wanted was to close my eyes and go back to sleep.

Later I found out that, when I arrived in the Saudi Arabia US Military hospital, I was pre-screened for my injuries and my condition. Out of eight doctors seven thought my left leg was injured too badly and should be amputated. There stood one lonely COL who had had faith in his and his colleagues abilities, and took special interest in me as a patient. I am not sure, if his rank or his ability to convince the other doctors made a difference in my life, but he somehow convinced the staff to attempt to save my leg. I was a lucky man, the COL took my faith in his own hands and prevented me from having my leg amputated right away.

When I woke up again it was dark. I could hear an airplane, I was flying. I focused my eyes and then had enough light to see. I could hear people moaning in agony around me. To my left the person was in a lot of pain, I could hear his cry. I decided to talk to him...

"What happened?" I asked.

"My name is SSG Brown, I am from the 24th Infantry division. I am a tank commander. We were patroling in Iraq when we came upon a tank. My driver inquired about the approaching track vehicle. I noticed the identifying V in the direction of friendly forces. I told my driver to not worry about it, we are in the presence of friendly forces. Within seconds after that, the tank started firing on my track vehicle with explosive blasts. My driver screamed in panic for orders on our next move, then it happened, before I could even respond, my tank exploded, killing my driver instantly, and severing my leg so badly that, when medical attention arrived they had to amputate one of my legs immediately." he told me in agony.

I continued to talk with him, trying to ease the pain. Then we both went to sleep. When I awoke again, I was in a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where doctors took special interest in me and kept me there for 45 days and eight operations. The normal touring point after arriving in Germany was 3-5 days and medivacted to the US for further treatment.

I will never know why the people who had my faith in their hands took the special interest in me, but I thank the Lord that they did! One of my legs was still at risk for amputation, which I was not aware at the time. My wife thought it was better not to tell me about it, but thanks to the close care and the alertness of the doctors appointed over me I got to keep the leg.

With the sincereness and special care that my lovely wife provided for me, I was able to overcome a severe tragic fate that few live to talk about, and went on to place in the top 100 in a 2000 Millennium-Man bodybuilding contest. With the care of my wife I overcame the injuries and other illness that the war inflicted on me.

Against all prognoses I learned to walk without crutches, even without a cane. We always will appreciate the care we received from the medical personnel in Saudi Arabia, Landstuhl, Andrews Air Force Base, Fort Gordon and Fort Stewart.

I have been wanting to write this story ever since it happened, and now, 14 years later, me and my wife are about ready to write the book. The book should surface in the near future. A true novel about what the first Iraqi war was like, and the faith of the soldiers at hand during these difficult times...

Unfortunately we lost track of Hardy and McGee. McGee will always be remembered as my guardian angel, without her presence and her fast and professional help I would have lost both my legs and probably my life as well. Our comforting thought is that this is a small, small world and we might, eventually, meet again.

Roger and Birgit Pratcher

© 2005