It was August 31, 2006. We had gone down to Anbar, the same city they had found Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole. It’s on the east side of the Tigris, about fifteen miles south of Tikrit. FOB Spiecher was on the north side of Tikrit so it was about a forty-five minute drive from the base. We made it down there by riding with another unit that I was not comfortable with. Part of our mission was to inspect the courthouses and determine whether or not they needed computers, a holding facility, or other infrastructure needs.
The insurgency was heating up all around us. Fortunately our convoy down to Anbar was uneventful.
After we arrived we began the meeting with the Iraqi judge in the courthouse. In the meeting was an Air Force JAG colonel I was working for, an interpreter, and a major from the unit that took us down there and myself. Outside, our guys were pulling security. After a while the security guys came up to remind us that we’d been there for about thirty to thirty-five minutes and said that we needed to be getting on the road. We wrapped things up and headed outside.
We were stepping back out to the vehicles to get ready to leave. The courthouse was set at one of the main intersections in the city. Here was a traditional Iraqi compound with a five-foot high concrete wall surrounding the courthouse complex. The guys had turned the vehicles around and were ready to head out. Another mission completed.
We had received a brief earlier that morning to let us know that there was another convoy approaching our area. It was a familiarization convoy to allow new unit commanders to see the area and get familiar with everything around them.
I opened the door to my truck to get into the Tactical Convoy Commander (TCC) position, put my weapon into the vehicle, and saw the first vehicle of the other convoy come through the intersection. As I put my gun down I heard what sounded at the time as a gunshot. In my experience in Iraq you would hear gunfire all the time. The police at times directed traffic by shooting AK-47s. Gunfire didn’t really send up much of a red flag for us.
What had actually happened was an insurgent had thrown a grenade at us. The grenade hit the top of the wall around the compound. It sounded muffled in sound, like a gunshot to me. I don’t know why it landed outside the wall instead of inside the wall. There was a lot that would happen that day I would not understand.
Lord, thank you that in everything, even war, you rule over all. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
David Graves was an officer with a provisional reconstruction team in Iraq in 2006.
“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.” (1 Chronicles 29:11–13)