A Deployed New Years Eve

2009/2010 was the only New Year that I found myself in Iraq. 2004/2005 I had re-deployed for and 2006/2007 I was lucky enough to spend on leave.

The day was like any other in Iraq and that part of the deployment is pretty much a blur for me since 1-14 was still split between two bases and the staff was working 3 different projects at this time....the combined checkpoints, upcoming elections, and a massive targeting mission to remove as many of the threats from the battlespace as we could before elections. To say I was stressed would be an understatement.

There was also that irritating mortar team that had suddenly vanished but who I was convinced would be back.

By 11:00 pm I had ditched work and gone back to my room. There was only so many PowerPoint slides and emails I could stare at and according to my notes I had to partake in a mission analysis meeting at 9 am (I think it was a briefing to the squadron commander about the checkpoint planning). Looking at my notes there was also a briefing to the US Forces-Iraq commander, GEN Odierno, that was going to occur on January 2nd. We had a lot going on.

I was in a pretty deep sleep when I woke up to an explosion. A very, very close explosion. To say my mind clicked on immediately would be a complete lie but I at least managed to look at my watch...11:59 pm. My first thoughts were, "this is a really strange time for that mortar team to be hitting us."

Our friendly neighborhood mortar team had hit us 4 times at this point. Twice in October and twice in November, all between 6-8 pm...ish.

A second explosion followed by a "Woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!" rattled me into a slighly more awake state.

"Who the fuck 'woooo's' at being mortared?" Was the only thought I could muster.

A third exposion, a second "woo", and another look at my watch it finally dawned on me...the Special Forces team was setting off explosives for New Years. Their compound was right next to ours so whatever they were lighting off sounded and felt like incoming mortars. I rolled over and fell back asleep to the thought, "fucking Green Berets."

The lesson learned: always stay up for major holidays.