Christmas Day IED

It is December 25th 2005. The Marines of QRF platoon wake up happy hoping to have a relaxed day with no call-outs.

Around 09:00 that morning, we get a call from the COC to escort EOD a few miles down MSR Mobile to disarm an IED that has been spotted.

We're pissed but shouldn't take us too long. We've did 100s of EOD escorts by this point.

We get to the location, set up a perimeter and EOD sends out the robot. They blow the IED in place and back to base we go.

Everybody is in a pretty good mood by this point as we make our way back to Camp KV. My vehicle Commander is a corporal and he's wearing reindeer antlers on top of his Kevlar lol.

We are singing Christmas songs in the vehicle as we roll down the road. Then all of a sudden "BOOM" massive IED goes off on the front of the vehicle. Corporal makes sure everybody's okay and they are. A little vehicle damage but no injuries.

This was IED #2 for me.

We only have about a month left in the deployment and I'm thinking to myself: "I'm not gonna make it back home if this keeps happening".

I'm trying to hold it together but all I can picture is that massive ass explosion in the center of the roadway. I can't figure out how they had buried it and hid it so well.

That's when the nightmares and panic attacks start. A reoccurring dream of our vehicle being on fire and me being unable to get out.

I had seen other Marines in the platoon go through this and thought I was gonna be one of the guys that wasn't bothered. I was badly mistaken.

Edit: I know someone is going to ask. No, I didn't get a CAR for this. The entire platoon had already gotten CARs months earlier for different events.