The Worst Day of My Life Essay

It was 115 degrees; the platoon was walking through the middle of the desert each of them with 40 pounds of gear on and an M16A2 rifle. It was summer time in the country of Afghanistan and the temperature was rising. At this point I asked myself what the hell I am doing here and why did I join the United States Army? Right when I was thinking that I felt a tug on my leg and there stood a young boy about 7 years old with only one arm, “Candy,Candy” he asked. Upon speaking with the local villagers we found out that his arm was taken from an improvised explosive device (IED) planted

Plenty of people were talking about what had happened, from the soldiers and the leadership of the 1st Armored Division, to the families waiting for us back in Friedberg, Germany. The Middle East edition of the Stars and Stripes newspaper had even reported on the incident, being referred to as a showdown. But not everyone was there. And if it were not for my squad training, cohesiveness, and diligent house search during a mission to check and clear an area believed to contain many empty houses in the northeastern sector in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar, it could have been that no one would have ever even known about the fortified fighting position built into a seemingly normal house. As it turned out, though, the first house we entered to

As I stood in the gunner’s hatch completely focused with a firm grip on the 240B machine gun that was mounted on top of the Stryker I was assigned to. I listened to all the radio traffic that was being sent across the net hopeful and eager that maybe there was a chance we could recover the Soldier that had been taken captive. My heart was racing and the anticipation was high that night as it was pitch black and all you could see was the gun fight’s that were ensuing all throughout the Area of Operation (A.O.). As I scanned the surrounding area we were assigned that night to block off, all that kept running through my mind was we have to get this guy back.

A patrol team from the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division is responsible for searching suspected insurgent hideouts, capturing enemy combatants and bringing them in for questioning. On July 28th, 2011 the patrol team was in the city of Bagdad, Iraq when a roadside bomb takes out the first two vehicles in the convoy killing four soldiers. They immediately pull to the side of the road and take cover as the rest of the convoy comes under small arms fire. A long fight pursues, but the patrol team is able to disarm the insurgents and take them captive. The next day, back at camp, the platoon leader puts several soldiers from the patrol team in charge of interrogating one of the suspects. He explains the technique he wants used to obtain this

Went for shot to our trenches at rear nothing particular doing. One of our chaps hit by sniper, the bullet just grazed the top of his head.

“Ah you’re finally back” he was greeted by two friendly faces John and Kyle, they were a few years both older and more experienced than him. “You took your time down there. Get scared or something?" Andrew was the newest guard squad here as he had just come of age to join them, never having done anything like this before as he had only been on the job for around two weeks. Before this, he was working as a waiter at the local bar lounge area. His friends found it amusing to tease him about not being as good or as fast as the others yet.

It was a quiet week in the Sadr City and the surrounding area. And we were gearing up to support another Red/Orange hat operation (Special Ops Teams) to include the Seals in this operation. The operation was to secure and capture a building with Four High-Value Targets (HVI’s) from Iran to include a high ranking officer out of the Jaish Mahdi Army (JAM) that they were supposedly having a meeting in the Area of Operation (AO). We were given four hours of prep time after Warning ORDER was given to the platoon. The Company had been awaiting for this mission for about two weeks now. This time I was a Bradley Commander in the Platoon and we did not have much to get ready because we have our equipment and Bradley’s always ready and prepared

Shrapnel from rocks struck one of my lads in the neck. Firing wildly in every direction I raced to his side. Moving towards him, my position became exposed. An insurgent took advantage of the situation.

I looked over at Tony, my roommate then, my brother now, and dotted my eyes back and forth as if to say, “where we goin’?” He shrugged. Finally the brakes squealed and the back of the buss flew open, we ran out into our formation, still clueless as to where were. Tillman, walked up to the formation, and instructed us to turn around. We were greeted by a series of walls barbed wire and ropes. “Welcome to my obstacle course,” he said. “God,” Emmons, a leading man in second platoon muttered. We were told that we would works in pairs against the three other platoons and try to beat them to the finish. Average time of completion… thirty minutes. I was first up and Tony and I ran off, we were like lighting, crawling, climbing, and boosting each other up. That was the first time I felt it. I didn’t hate life for just one split second, actually I enjoyed it. Weird I thought to

Everyone got up and ran to get their gear. I yelled to William, over the siren, “You ready for some action.” He replied “Heck, yeah!” We got our gear and ran to the command tent to get our orders. Along the way we heard shots being fired from all directions. When we got there the

Our convoy would move forward as a leading element to the Gulf War in convoys we moved across the desert at a fast pace it was the longest we would stay awake it was close to a day and half until we would meet our objective phase line Delta as the convoy came to a halt the radio silence began then all of a sudden loud explosions in the air and on the ground. As we buttoned up, you couldn’t hear yourself think within minutes we were in our battle stations and moving right to engage an enemy tank. This would be the moment to see if your team worked together with all the intense training, As I yelled “gunner hep 350” everything came naturally the round that was the size of a watermelon was chambered and a direct hit to the enemy tank. My adrenaline was so high as I ordered the other tanks to engage. Night time approached fast, and fighting intensified. As my unit moved forward, we would engage tank after tank not knowing if we were winning. All I knew was that my tanks were moving forward as radio chatter increased. I heard of one of our tanks hit and partially destroyed looking through my scopes I could see the flames about one mile to my left, deciphering the radio communications there would be no one near the tank to help. I could hear the alarms that only two survivors needed assistance! I picked the radio mic up and said, “Alpha 45 in route to retrieve tank”. Hesitating, the Commanding Officer yelled back for a crossfire which meant there would be both enemy and friendly tanks as I approached the

There are many pivotal points in a person's life which mark important milestones. The marking of one of these milestones for me all started when I was four years of age. My dream was to become tall enough to reach the twizzlers that were kept from me atop the fridge. This is an important memory I have from when I was young because it taught me how important it is to have dreams.

It is amazing that when you think about it, we actually take so many things for granted. We never know how good something we have is until you do not have it with you in your everyday life anymore. My family is known to be a very happy and fun group of people. If you know any of us, you would not think that we have had to deal with the loss of a family member. Up until now, I have never truly experienced what it was like to lose someone you care about so much until I had to do it twice this year.

Everyone human in the world has had a horrible day or the best day that they could ever imagine. Most of the time, an individual will experience both in their lifetime. For example, death, losing a job, or failing an important class could count as a day that an individual would never repeat. Inversely, finding love, getting accepted into college, or winning the lottery could count as a person’s best experience. To summarize, there are days or experiences that a person would pay 1,000,000 to repeat, and there also times at which a person wouldn’t accept an endless supply of money to relive.

BEEP BEEP BEEP, screamed my alarm as it woke me up for school at 7:00 am. It was a cold, windy, and snowy day early in March 2014. I was in 6th grade at Ringgold Middle School. My day was going very well, at least until I got home. My mom had some very bad news she gave me when she picked me up from the bus stop. She told me that her and my father were getting divorced. My head was spinning, and I did not know how comprehend what she was saying to me. I felt very upset, but I did not want to show it. I knew it would make my mom feel worse if she saw how sad, scared, and upset I really was.