View From Afar

The first morning I arrived here at Camp XX, I began a 4 mile jog from my rack with the Marines. About two miles out, I happened to hear two very distinct thuds several miles over my left shoulder as I jogged. I stopped, and then heard overhead two very fast rockets, then two distinct booms over my right shoulder, about a mile or two from where I was standing. I had just witnessed a rocket attack from probably the best vantage point on earth - it made an arc high above me - all alone in the cool Iraqi morning. The sounds and visuals were spectacular, even thrilling. I jogged back to my bunk, really not afraid, figuring that just the expanse of this base made my odds of getting hit by a rocket very, very remote. Luckily, no one was injured in the attack, I found out later.

By the way, I had just left Camp XX in Baghdad the morning before, where a soldier was killed at the PX by a rocket attack. I had just been to that same plaza the day before. About a week after I left Camp Victory, a women contractor was killed by the back of the Camp Victory gym, at a spot 200 yards from where I stayed for a week in transient billeting.

So, in less than a month in country, I've experienced good luck (to not be at the wrong place at the wrong time) and some sounds and visuals not many in this world will ever see or hear.

Sights. Also saw Falujah from fifty feet, flying from Baghdad to Camp XX in a Marine helo.