To our horror, the corporal to whom we had given the AT-4 fired off an illumination round from his M203 grenade launcher, but because of the wind, the round drifted back toward us. Its tiny parachute carried it back to the ground, completely giving away our position.
“We were dead for sure now,” I thought. I just knew the enemy tanks would loom out of the dust and darkness at any moment.
“What are you doing,” I blasted. “The tanks are going to know we are here for sure now!”
“Where are they, we can’t see them?” the corporal replied, not seeming to care that a lance corporal had yelled at him.
“They’re out there. Straight ahead of us, about 1500–2000 meters. Don’t fire another one of those flares,” I begged.
I got back into the track and climbed up to the troop commander’s station, behind the driver.
“Can you see anything?” I asked.
“No, nothing yet, too much dust,” Mejia replied. “Take a break. I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
“I think it’s going to be easier than it sounds, sleep that is,” I responded as I climbed into the troop compartment.
Sitting on the center bench seat and leaning against the ramp at the very back of the vehicle, I lit a cigarette and tried to relax. Dirt cigarettes we called them the ones the Iraqis tried to sell from the side of the road.
“How can I sleep at a time like this?” I thought.
I pulled a small zip-lock bag from my uniform’s left breast pocket. Here I kept a pocket-size Bible the USO (United Service Organizations) distributed at Aviano Air Force base in Italy, where we stopped en route to Kuwait. Also in the bag was a plastic wallet-size picture holder with photographs of my girlfriend in Ohio and my family back home in Manitoba, Canada.
After reading several versus from the Psalms, I returned the Bible to the bag and looked at the photo album. In my mind I said goodbye to everyone I loved. Then I returned the pictures to the bag and prayed. I thanked God for the life he had given me, my parents, and the people I loved. I asked God to take my life into his hands and do with me what he willed. When I was finished, I closed my eyes, laid down on the bench, and miraculously fell asleep.
Lord, you’re in control. Thank you for sustaining when I sleep and when I rise.
“I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.” (Psalm 3:5–6)