Wake Up Call

May 10, 2007 - 4:00am in Iraq

I am up - sort of. And then I hear the guns from Firebase Mayhem unleash their fury. (They normally do this at night. I say normally, but I've been a visitor at this camp for only 5 days. The pattern has been late at night.) I step outside for a cigarette. I can hear the "thwap" of the round exiting the tube. There is a flash of orange light in the dark sky and a thunderous roar as the round is sent hurtling through the sky. Several seconds pass and there is a low, gutteral rumble miles in the distance. Something has been destroyed. A house? A business? Are there people inside? Not anymore... About half a dozen booms shake the ground within 10 minutes or so. I hear chanting from a mosque amid the distant rumbling explosions. It sounds like miserable, dying cats. I field strip my cigarette and get ready for work.