rough draft updated into a final draft

Quintarean Lawrence

Liberty University

6/5/18

The Ultimate Survival

I felt that I had been abandoned in the desert, but when it came home, I also felt very lonely as well. Perhaps, part of me had been left dead in the deserted wilderness as my brothers died. We deployed to the deserts of Iraq to extract an American who had been captured by a group of Taliban while patrolling. January 1st, 2005, we were dropped off at 00:00 hours. I could hear the pitch of the helicopter changing and the voice of the pilot counting, “five, four, three….” Everything was electric, and I remember that experience as it were yesterday, it is statued on my brain making me unable to forget. As the alpha element, I was tasked with leading the rest of my platoon members through the route that was given to us by our intelligence officer. We were dropped off near the village that was the hideout of the group.

First, it occurred to me how dark and cold it was. Around this village was a wall. Stan, our weapon expert, would take the lead from this point on. He would walk about 10 meters ahead of us to ensure that the path we took had no Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). Finally, we got a break at the wall; Stan had to let me take the lead. I was astonished by how deserted the village was. Our combat controller communicated with our commander who for some combat reasons instructed us to wait until morning. We found a haven behind a specific hut and decided we would rest there as we expect for further instructions. First light was beginning to come out on the eastern horizon. Everything was going on well; we were having a chat with my fellow alpha element Tory. All over sudden, I look up to my left and saw two individuals on the roof of a building. “It’s not good! Tory look up!” I told him murmuring. It seems like they had not seen us. I knew that if anything went wrong, these troops would be on top of us in minutes.

All over sudden, I head a deafening thud! It was a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). Soon, this village turned into an inferno. All I could hear was a crackling thumb. This was definitely a kill zone. “Everybody rebound!” the commander yelled on the radio. I lead the way out of the break in the wall, and we began running towards our drop off point. After a short while, I turned back, Stan was there, tory was there and no one else. It couldn’t get any worse. Before I could even fathom what had happened to use, I just saw Stan fall, before I could take another step, I heard another loud thud! Somebody had stepped on an IED. I tried to lift my weapon as if in a tactical position but I couldn’t. Blood was oozing out of my left arm. It looked as if had been bleeding for a while; I was now beginning to fade away. From far, a sound I was familiar with, they were cobras throwing missiles and firing their machine guns. “Alpha element found!” that is the last thing I heard over the radio. The next time I came to, my mother, father, and younger brother were beside me. I had survived, but what was killing me was my friends who aren’t coming back and the devastation on their families.