This war is unlike any in history. We aren’t sleeping in foxholes, or marching across the desert. Our enemy doesn’t even wear a uniform. Our living conditions are better, but in some ways this war is more difficult than any we’ve faced before. There’s no way to look for our enemy, because he doesn’t look any different from the innocent civilians that are on our side.
If an insurgent wants to attack us, he simply makes himself a bomb, straps it to himself, and gets as close to us as possible. We can point a weapon at him, but he has no fear of death because he’s planning to die that day.
We can’t shoot someone just because they look suspicious. It’s often too late by the time we find out that they’ve made themselves into a bomb. It doesn’t matter how prepared we are, if an insurgent plans an attack, there’s not much that we can do to stop him. It’s just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
These are the problems that we face, and all we can do is try to adapt. We’re in the most danger on the roads, so we try to stay at our compound as much as possible.
In a typical day, we go to the compound in the morning, do our work there installing and maintaining communications systems, and we head back to the house after dinner. Sometimes we travel to other compounds if there’s work that needs to be done, but those places are nearby. It’s a typical full-time job.
When we don’t have as much work to do, we usually get Fridays off. We’re allowed to do what we want in our free time, as long as it’s at the house or on the compound. I get to send e-mail and make phone calls every day. It’s easy to get complacent when things are going well, but that can change quickly.
Even when we’re not working, we still have to be alert. Insurgents don’t have a normal work day. They can attack at any time, and they usually try to do so when we’re least prepared.
That’s exactly what happened Wednesday. I was laying on my bunk around midnight, watching a baseball game on television. Just as I was starting to drift off to sleep a mortar landed close to our house. The windows were shaking, sirens were going off, and within a matter of seconds everyone was awake and headed to the nearby bunkers.
It’s a strange feeling. My first instinct when it happened was to get my gear on and grab my rifle. Then I realized how pointless that was. I wasn’t going to be shooting at anyone. The men who attacked us fired a missile from a mile away, then ran for cover in an area filled with civilians. It’s frustrating to be so helpless.
We all knew what had happened, but therewas no telling what would happen next. Indirect fire, mortars and rockets, they’re completely unpredictable. It’s another instance of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s no way to know if more are coming, so all we can do is sit and wait and pray.
All things considered, it’s amazing that everything has gone so well here. We’re winning this war because we’ve been able to adapt to the tactics our enemy uses. We have great leaders that know what it takes to succeed in combat, and because of them we’ll be coming home safe in the near future.
David Kaye is a student at Baylor University.