Personal Narrative: A Day In Iraq

I woke up every morning in Iraq the same way. I would get up and I would get all my gear on. Today was different though, I woke up, and leaned over the side of my bed with a bad feeling in my stomach, I got up soon after. I laced up my boots, loaded my gun’s magazines, and then put my vest on. Then walked outside and the sun blinded me for a little bit. I later walked to where the Humvee was, it was going to take us on our route. When I got in the Humvee I saw one of my good buddies, Jaxon Teriten, and we high fived and said, “Let’s do what we normally do.” I told him about the feeling in my stomach and we didn’t think much of it. We went on our natural route and we were taking it slow because there was a lot of negative activity happening around there. We drove about a mile and a half out of the base, I looked out the window to see a man on his phone walking faster than normal away from us. That’s when the enemy blew up the Humvee with an I.E.D (improvised explosive device). The explosion felt that is was in slow motion. It flipped the truck, and made it landed on its side. I had it the door of the Humvee and Jazon had landed on top of me. We all got up very slowly as a few of us were badly hurt. Jazon was checking everyone in the cab of the vehicle, and he told me 3 of the marines up front were killed. Jazon went to check me and pointed out that my left leg was torn to shreds. He did everything he could, but it wasn’t enough to keep me awake. He called for a EVAC and they came almost instantly. I woke up in the hospital on the F.O.B (Forward Operating base) and the doctor had told me, “You’re going home.” All I could think was what happened to me. They put me under a lot of pain medication and I was flown back to the United States, I woke up in the hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho. My daughter Taylor was there along with my wife, Dalaniee, they both were crying, and I looked around the room and saw Jazon with his hands holding his head. I looked at him and said, “Jazon what are you doing here?” He got up and said I was dismissed. I looked at his left leg and he had a prosthetic already. The doctor had walked into the room but I was so focused on my leg not being there anymore that I couldn’t think. I heard a high-pitched ringing and only saw the bandage. I heard the doctors voice start coming into my ear. I heard him say, “Jason your life is going to change a lot.” “What do you mean I can’t change my life, I love it the way it is.” I said back. Later that month I had to take physical therapy to get used to not having my leg. Then they had started talking to me about getting a prosthetic leg and that’s when I was scared …show more content…
Until I got a call from Jazon asking where T0aylor was and if she had drove to school yet. I told him that she left like 10 minutes ago, and was supposed to call me when she gets to school. That’s when he told me to get in my truck and go find her. I drove 10 minutes away and saw the lights of firetrucks, police cars, and ambulances. I saw Taylor’s car rolled over at the only intersection outside of town, but it wasn’t just her car. I had ran to go see if she was okay, but she was nowhere to be found. I started asking where she could be and nobody had found her yet. I had looked everywhere in her car, in the ditch and everywhere I could. I saw an ambulance speeding away, and I was afraid she was inside the back so I ran to my truck. I was afraid that she was inside of the ambulance. I followed the ambulance to the hospital, and I couldn’t see who was on the stretcher. I asked the driver who was in the back and he said a young girl. I asked more about what she looked like and it was only sounding increasingly like Taylor. I was terrified that she was