Drowning in the Desert

They say the only good morning in a war zone is the morning you leave. . . . A boom jolted me from my sleep. Everything shook. My cot, the ground, the walls. In the dark, I reached for my Kevlar [helmet], which was vibrating under my cot, and grabbed my vest from the hook it was shaking on. Throwing my Kevlar on my head, I started to secure my vest when: boom. The sound of the second mortar round exploding thundered in my ears. Damn. This one was close. And loud. So damned loud. But strangely I felt as though I were in a silent movie. I couldnrs"t hear the scratch of the Velcro as I secured my vest. The dull hum penetrated the earth and filled my ears with ringing. Somewhere on Anaconda, field artillery folks were scrambling to determine the mortarsrs" point of origin so that we could prepare a counterattack. My body, every nerve ending, was in a state of high alert, primed for action.Gembara, Vivian H. is the author of 'Drowning in the Desert' with ISBN 9780760334485 and ISBN 076033448X.