You’re supposed to be heading home on February 28, but because of snow, you don’t get picked up until March 3 at 7 a.m., and even then, it’s only because you’re getting picked up by a squadron of Black Hawk helicopters. It’s a 20 minute ride from Jaghato, your base at 9,000 feet in the Afghani mountains, to FOB Shank in the Logar Province. At 5 p.m., you board a AC-130 to Bagram Airfield, a giant air force base where you turn in your weapons and go through a debriefing. @@Jaghato: http://www.militarynewsnetwork.com/military-news/news1204.htm@@ @@Logar province: http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Logar+Province@@ @@Bagram Airfield: http://www.bagram.afcent.af.mil/@@ @@AC-130: http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/attack/ac130.html@@
The next morning at 8 a.m., you board a C17 to Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. There you turn in your body armor, go through another debriefing and spend the night. The next morning, you take a bus to Kuwait Airport and board a Global Air plane. You stop in Leipzig, Germany, to refuel. You land in Atlanta, go through customs, get back on the plane and fly to Dallas. From there, you hop on a plane to Portland, Ore., arriving at 7 p.m. on March 7. @@C17: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/c17/index.htm@@ @@Ali Al: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/ali-al-salem.htm@@ @@http://www.globalair.com/@@
Four days of travel from a war zone to your home. The first thing you notice?
“As soon as I stepped outside PDX, I inhaled the clean, fresh Oregon air.”
Gavin Turner Colson, Private 1st Class, 10th Mountain Infantry, has been stationed in Afghanistan for the past five months. He was given a 15-day leave in March and came back home to Oregon to see his friends and family.
It was “probably the best 15 days of my life,” Colson said.
Just two weeks after arriving in Afghanistan, Colson was the gunner for the lead vehicle of his platoon, gripping the .50-caliber machine gun in the vehicle’s gun turret when a moped crossed the road in front of them. The moped stopped and Pvt. Colson shouted out “moped, moped.” The squadron leader replied “it’s all right.”
Two seconds later, there was an explosion.
“The loudest noise I have ever heard,” Colson said.
Colson’s vehicle had hit an improvised explosive device (IED). The bomb sent up a whirlwind of dust and dirt as Colson’s vehicle, which weighed about 4,000 pounds, was lifted five feet in the air.
“I was launched up from the gunner’s seat but luckily had my harness on,” he said.
As gunfire broke out, Colson was still inside the vehicle, tangled in a mess, his whole body hurting and his hand throbbing.
He didn’t even want to look at his hand; he thought it was mangled.
He was pulled out of the vehicle by a fellow soldier and was relieved to see that his hand was not, in fact, severely damaged. They returned back to their base, where Colson received medical attention. The army had towed Colson’s truck back to the base. The front half of the vehicle was a torn mess. One of Colson’s team leaders showed him the steel handle of the .50-caliber machine gun that he had been holding when the IED had gone off. It was twisted and gnarled and had caught Colson’s hand within it, explaining the pain.
“After a couple days, I was back out on the next mission,” Colson said.
So for five months, Colson was shot at, mortared and rocketed, living daily with the notion that any day could be his last. The 15 days were a respite from all of that — a time when Colson not only got to see his family and friends but also got to also simply enjoy certain moments.
“The little things where friends and I would just be sitting around and they’d be bored was fun for me, because I was spending time with them hanging out and joking around,” he said.
Colson said one of the things he has learned in Afghanistan is how good Americans have it and how he will never take anything for granted again.
“It just puts a whole new perspective on life and to appreciate the things you got,” Colson said. “Over here, I see kids digging through our trash pit while it’s burning, black smoke, dirty, just to grab a leftover of someone’s chips. People back in the United States get stressed out about little things or get pissed off at things. They don’t how good they have it.”
Colson’s next scheduled return to the U.S. is October of this year. He says it is difficult to be away from his family and friends.
“Thinking back on all the good times I had with (them), knowing I have another six months here until I can go back.” But at the same time he feels a responsibility toward his fellow soldiers.
“I thought about them every day,” Colson said of his platoon. “I don’t know what I’d do if I had come back and someone had been shot or killed.”
The members of the Navy SEAL team that killed Osama bin Laden last week have been, appropriately, championed. We must not forget, however, the thousands of other heroes like Pvt. Colson who are putting their lives on the line every day in order to protect us.
They continue to deserve our utmost thanks.