No Longer Quiet

Last night was a strange night. The night we got here there was an IED that killed a Marine and blew the legs off several others while rigging a 7-ton truck for tow. I remember thinking how dangerous this place was after the IED and the subsequent small arms engagement I heard about. But, that was the about a week ago and it was the last time the battalion took any casualties since our arrival. Over the week past I’ve been going out on missions. I noticed the tension hadn’t left them, even if the violence had seemed to wane while the elections were ramping up. Watching them on patrol, I noticed some behavior that was so drilled into them, that made me reevaluate the sense of security I felt during the lull in violence. The Marines stayed in their vehicles during patrols, dashing from vehicle to building when they had to. They crouched down when on rooftops, weary of snipers. I began to think the IED upon our arrival was a fluke and that things weren’t really that bad here.
Then, last night a Marine from Weapons Company was killed while out on patrol. He was on a rooftop with other Marines when he was shot in the forehead by a sniper. When I came back from chow, there was a pile of stuff laying on the floor of the NCO hooch. It was the dead Marine’s effects. The company 1st Sgt. had to go through it and send personal stuff home and keep the Marine Corps property. I stopped and looked at the stuff on the ground; a DVD player, some candy, sneakers… I guess it struck me that this was the same sort of stuff I and so many other people here had. That there was so little difference between him and everyone else in terms of what would get sent home. It made me think how little a distinction that sniper’s bullet would make between any of us. That thought chilled me, but not nearly as much when I learned that he died on his daughter’s first birthday.
His stuff is packed up, forms are filled out letters written and notifications are made. His belongings have to go to Camp Ramadi, so a mission number is assigned. Marines mount up on vehicles and head out the gate on another mission.