Action

a couple of weeks ago my platoon had it's first shoots fired in anger. well, maybe not in anger, but not at a paper target either.



my platoon was going around to various villiages meeting with important iraqis for one reason or another. my friend and i were posted up at the corner of his house pulling security. we were there for a few minutes when a dog laying underneath the guys car starting barking at us. we thought nothing of it. all day dogs had been barking at us, but they were in their shade, we were in ours, and we simply agreed to disagree.



this dog was different, not content just to voice his displeasure at our arrival. a malcontent, if you will. indignant fury gripped him as he charged our position, teeth baring, in a mad dash to attack us with the obvious goal of giving me rabies. with only seconds to react, i leaned back slightly to kick him as he got close enough (in later versions this would turn into preperation for a roundhouse kick). my friend standing beside me had an interesting idea. he saw the dog charging us and thought, "hey, i have a weapon."

shots rang out, disturbing the false calm of an iraqi evening. the dog (more like a wolf, really) did not scare easily, but knew he was bested when my fiends boom stick finally hit him in the leg. the fallen beast whimpered off, recognizing his betters.

yeah, that may be a bit overdramatic, but it's also probably going to be the only action i see this whole tour.