23:01
We were given the task because our senior lieutenant and company commander had a situation where they had trapped eight to ten insurgents. So we started methodically going house by house, looking for something, but we couldn't find anything. Building after building, nothing. And we were right into an ambush with belt-fed machine guns. I couldn't use my rifle, I looked down and saw that the bullet had hit the magazine. You can't imagine worse luck I take a machine gun, go in, open fire and realize that there is a bunker in front of me So I just started shooting. I saw these guys. I saw the expression on their faces. I saw how confident they were. And I'm out of bullets.
I look into the house, and there's no one there. I thought, "We need to get out of here." And I just ran. And I remember feeling like bullets were flying everywhere. When I reached the gate, someone grabbed me by the unloading straps and pulled me against the wall. And I thought: this was my chance. I had an enemy. I saw the enemy. But I broke off contact, and it was one of the hardest moments of my life. In some places the water is ankle-deep and has a pungent smell. It smells like fish, it's toxic, and the water itself is slippery. Your legs are moving apart, the smell is suffocating, and that's the only thing you feel.
I look up and see a reflection in a piece of mirror in the corner. These guys saw us. I realized I had a 40mm grenade launcher. I wasn't aiming. I turn the corner, shoot, and the shell flies through the door. There was a back door. But that was enough for them to realize: "Oh, oh, problems." I saw that guy loading an RPG. I turned the corner and opened fire, and because of his position, he couldn't move. He was trapped.
I know I wounded another one, and he crawled towards the kitchen and fell there. I threw away the radio because it gave away my position. They could hear her. But I don't think he knows where I am. And it seemed almost obvious to me that he didn't know, because he walked right up to the door of that bedroom, and that's when I ran into him. That guy is falling. There was a pause, and one shot simply passed sideways across the room. But there was a crack in the bedroom door frame, a little bit of free space between the concrete and the frame, and I fired a shot into the wall, which got him. So, I start moving along the bedroom wall. And while I was doing that, the cupboard that was on
the floor just opens and falls right onto the door. And some guy jumps out of it with a shortened AK-47 under his arm, the barrel pointed in the opposite direction from where he's running, and he just shoots, the bullets hitting the closet. He didn't know where I was, but the closet gave me enough cover to get out of the fire, he steps over the mattress, over the bed, loses his balance and falls into the water. I managed to shoot him and he ran up the stairs. And I move from this slippery water to blood. I completely lose my balance and just fall. And then that guy shoots right where I was just standing.
There is an explosion. He starts talking to another person. Another person answers him from above, above me. I didn't even know the layout of this house. I didn't know there was another floor above me. Hmm, but this conversation continued, and I didn't want it to continue because I didn't understand their language. I didn't understand what they were saying and had to stop it. And I just.I did everything I could to neutralize this guy. And, uh, I succeeded. And it took all my strength to do it. And then I went outside. I just needed a cigarette, which makes no sense at all, but I was really stressed. And I thought: I'll smoke a cigarette on this patio now.
My boys will come in and together we will destroy the last one, because I have had enough. And while I was smoking, this guy just jumped down. He landed perfectly and had the advantage of surprise. My weapon was not with me. I was smoking a cigarette. I wasn't wearing a helmet. I was beaten. I can't run. My eyes are burning. I, you know, he jumped. But he, you know, landed the way he landed, so I was able to, uh, I was able to open fire on him, and I really don't know where he went. He tried to crawl away from the building on the second landing. And then he fell.
I heard gunfire outside. Uh, and we never found him. And, and we never found him, because it was at that moment that my company commander called in the bomb. The bomb fell, but did not explode. We turned back and began clearing the area of enemies. And, you know, the crazy day was over, we moved on to the next crazy battle, and there were plenty of those the entire time we were in Fallujah.
