February 23, 2004
Boom
P: After I got off the phone with you earlier, I walked back to the TOC. When I was about half-way, a mortar hit up on the end of the compound. I kept walking. Then another hit. And another...
I think I ran faster than I have ever run in my life. I got to the TOC, got under the overhang, pulled out my gear and started filming. I don't think any recording will express what those explosions feel like. They are un-nerving. They are meant to harass--designed to induce sleepness nights. In the TOC, I pity the poor fool who slams a door. Everybody is on edge, cringing at the rumbles in the air.
Now, when people smoke, they hide behind one of the track vehicles parked under the palace roof. Service Battery has to wear IBA when walking outside at night and I don't think anyone uses the shower or the portajohns near the TOC at night.
Charlie got hit by an IED right by their gate the other night. It was their 18th hit. One of the medics, who also drives, has been hit 8 times. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
They've put scrap metal on their Humvee doors and there are a few Mad Max Humvees driving around. HHB has steel walls built around the beds of their high-back Humvees and sandbags on the floors. I saw the Humvee that Weisskopf and Nachtwey were in--the grenade ripped a hole through the wheel well. Trust me, I'm being careful, but I try not to think about it. When I'm out, I'm making myself real small.
