RPG

"“RPG!!!” was the first thing I heard. The three staccato letters emanated in a flurry of excitement and confusion from my turret gunner. The rocket had sailed about three feet over the top of our HMMWV, actually coming closer to his head than the truck. It benignly exploded in mid-air on the other side of the road, safely away from our HMMWV. When later questioned as to exactly how close the rocket came to us he replied,

Sir, it was green. I can see it in my mind’s eye right here (extending his left hand above his left elbow) and I can vividly see that it was green. Can I get a purple heart if it singed my eyebrows?

We were rolling with a CAAT (combined anti-armor) platoon from the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. There isn’t much of an anti-armor mission in Iraq, so CAAT platoons have increasingly been used as QRF (quick reaction forces) and for heavily armed vehicular patrols. We were positioned along one of the MSRs (main supply routes) in the city of Fallujah, in front of a hospital. How fitting, huh? The insurgent had two vehicles to choose from, and he shot at us. I guess it was our lucky day."
Midnight in Iraq