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Men Among Ants

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Submitted By mcmilliond13
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Daniel McMillion
24 May 2012
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Men Among Ants

The vibrations from the engines put all the passengers to sleep; including my wingman Paul sitting next to me. I tried to sleep some but, the snoring from everyone else kept me awake. I looked around at everyone in my company wearing their gear holding their rifle between their legs. Most of them had their flak vest open because it was around 80 degrees in the cabin of the plane. I still had mine buttoned up because I didn’t want to mess with it, but Paul had his completely off. He was complaining earlier about the heat before we boarded the plane. It was his first tour to the desert and it was my second. While I was sitting in my seat daydreaming, I saw a lot of commotion coming from the pilot’s deck. The stairs leading to the pilot’s deck was right in front of my seat and I could see almost the whole deck. There were a lot of lights flashing and it looked like the navigators were running around like lost squirrels trying to gather nuts. Then it happened; this loud boom out of dead silence. We were getting shot at.

The concussion from the explosion of the anti-aircraft round was impeccable. I had been shot at before, but the impact was so great it vibrated through my chest. My wingman Paul has never been under fire before, he was going hysterical. I tried to calm him down but my ears were still ringing from the blast and I could not hear anything he was saying. Paul was not the only one, the cabin of the plane looked like an ant pile after it was stepped on and all the ants are running around aimlessly. The blank look on my half my companies face gave away the reality of what was happening.

The pilot’s deck door slammed shut in order to help keep cabin pressure. It as the first noise I heard when my ears stopped ringing. The only Paul could hear was the screams of the company that were wounded during the explosion. I mustered my self to my feet and I grabbed Paul by his collar. I told him, pointing at the wounded soldiers, go help them. I could see him swallow as if he was trying to hide how scared he was as he got up and walked to the back of the plane. Paul was more experienced in the medical field than I was; so he patched up what wounds as I came up behind him trying to calm them down and buckle them back up.

Even with all the loud noises going on in the small plane cabin; I heard what seemed like the engines getting quitter. Paul and I both stopped what we were doing and looked at each other with grim despair; two of then engines went out. I was awake the entire plane ride so I knew we didn’t have much farther to go. I said to Paul “let’s get these soldiers back in their seats now!” Without hesitation Paul moved as fast as he could to help the rest of the soldiers that were lying on the floor of the plane. I was right behind him moving just as quick as we felt the plane to start to lean forward. Paul and I moved as fast as we could and finished buckling up the rest of the hysterical soldiers and jumped back into our seats.

Now back in our seats Paul and I buckled up waiting for what was going too happened next as the plane was leaning more and more forward. It was almost as if I was facing straight down at the ground. Paul then looked at me and said “it was an honor serving with you sir, I will be proud to die at your side.” In complete disbelief in what he was saying because I didn’t want it to happen; the last thing I felt was a huge thump on my head and my neck whipping forward. My wingman Paul had slapped me across the helmet and said I was snoring and that we were about to land.

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