War journal

The following are excerpts taken from the journal of Specialist Gable. He shared with the CN&R the entry he made two days after a roadside bomb injured two fellow guardsmen, including squad leader T.J. McClurg. Gable was riding in a Humvee immediately behind McClurg’s. He describes the explosion that occurred near a destroyed fuel truck parked on the roadside, treating the injured soldiers and his own reaction. Ellipses indicate deleted material and bracketed phrases were inserted by the CN&R for clarity.

11/13/04

As 3rd squad passed by, a huge blast exploded out a few meters down the road from the fuel truck. The explosion was deliberately directed toward the road. We are positive that the IED was controlled by remote. From out of nowhere, a defining boom. There was an enormous cloud of dark gray smoke; rocks and dirt were flying through the air in front of us … I scanned my sector for any possible location that the enemy maybe hiding. I only had houses in my line of fire; and as much as I would have like to just start spraying bullets at them, I decided that it would be better not to … When I got to the hmmwv, Parker was lying on the ground behind the truck and McClurg was on the ground in front of it. They were both moaning in pain, not screaming, but had hurried breathing and painful groans … [Gable and another soldier, both of whom are combat lifesavers, give first aid to Parker]. I saw a huge tearing cut about an inch deep running down Parker’s inner thigh … I could see all of the inner tissues … it was almost overwhelming. I took some gauze and began wadding it up and placing it on the wound … I was almost in panic my self. I tried to start an IV, but I was shaking so bad that I couldn’t do it … [the chopper arrives and Parker and McClurg are airlifted out]. When they took off and I started to walk back to the destroyed hmmwv, I nearly collapsed… The gravity of the whole situation was finally starting to hit me. I got back to the hmmwv and sat down and put my head between my knees … [100 meters up the road they question a dozen men who were sitting at a truck stop at the time of the explosion]. All of them claimed that they did not see anything, so we restrained all but a few of them and brought them in for questioning …