How many times can you ALMOST get hit???

Alright well yesterday was my first day back out on patrol after almost a week off straight. The way our schedule works is we rotate guys in the squads off on patrol days, and I happen to have my day off work come at the right time to get 5 off! It was great not doing anything, but it came to bite me in the ass. For this day out was extremely exhausting. Add to it that the air was extremely dusty pretty much all day and it created a overcast, yet still hot and exhausting, dreary day.

Well we did our typical market guarding and before lunch they dropped us dismounts off and we conducted a foot patrol through some of the neighborhoods. Nothing really special, for we pretty much just walked around, talked with some people, and just generally made our presence known. On our way back to our linkup point with the trucks (which was quite a ways away), we started to cross this one major road. There happened to be a lot of IA (Iraqi Army) guys there and they helped to stop the traffic as we crossed.

I was the last guy, and just as I was almost finished crossing the road I see this car coming towards us. It wasn't going to fast, but I thought to myself, "This guy had better stop." Once he was close enough I could see in the car and the driver totally was not paying attention. It now was lining up to where his car and my body were on a collision course. Then, still without looking, the guy hits the gas and starts flying directly at me. Without hesitation, I bring my rifle up to my shoulder, pointing directly at the driver, and I yell at the top of my lungs "HOLD THE FUCK UP!!" I guess the other occupants in the car noticed this just about the same time the driver finally decided to look forward. Every single occupant in that car, driver include went wided eyed as the driver slammed on his brakes, stopping about 3 feet or so in front of me. I was furious at this point, and even though they didn't understand the words I was speaking, I think they knew EXACTLY what I was yelling. I went up to their window, pissed that they almost hit me, and yelled at them for not paying attention, ya de da de da. It was funny because when I got done, I went back to falling in to the patrol about 1/2 the guys were looking back at me wondering what the hell happened.

We continued on, and were just a couple hundread meters from our linkup point, when again, we had to cross another road, this one semi-major. We actually ended up walking in the road the get to where we had to go. We were walking along, and I looked back like I usually do as the rear guy and I see this van coming at us. Ok, you got to see us, slow down now. Nope. Dude comes right up on me all quick, and again Im forced to stop this man in the same terrifying manner in which I stopped the last guy. JESUS! Its the middle of the day. How hard is it to see us and stop!?!

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Nothing else really exciting the rest of the day until we ended up doing our night patrol. I was 2nd to last guy for this one, and we ended up patrolling around long enough to suck, but not really too long. About 1/2 way through the patrol, the guy in front of me was about to cross this road when I heard this loud, high pitched sound. I origionally though it was an RPG or a rocket being fired but as soon as I though that, I saw what it was. This car came in to view from where I was in the alley, slidding to a stop just before the guy that was about to cross. The car had been flying and I guess didn't see us since it was night. Initially I was still on alert because I had no clue if thats what happened or if they were about to hop out and start shooting. So for the 3rd time, there was a close call with a car, and for the 3rd time I had to point my rifle at the occupant of another car. It immediately became clear, what happened, and we continued on our way. The rest of the patrol was uneventful.

Before heading back, we learnded of an IED attack that had taken place on another company from my unit. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but it was the new deadly roadside bombs they have here, EFPs (Explosively Formed Projectiles). The scarry thing, is that it took place in an area that we have driven past on several occasions, which now makes it the first EFP to go off in an area where we could have been the recipients. The EFPs are extremely deadly because they punch through our new uparmored Humvee's as if the armor were butter. I knew they would come up eventually, but its been so long and we were fortunate to not have had to deal with they really up to this point. Now, we have to worry about this new form of faceless attacks from our enemy. I pray to go that we don't see many more in the future.