Had a few close calls while deployed, but the two that always stick with me:

Iraq, April 2010: was leaving the country at the end of my deployment. The airfield was actually outside of the base in a field. They called up to say weather was too bad and the planes weren’t coming, so we had to wait until the next day. There weren’t enough bongo trucks to take us all back at once, so me and a few others volunteered to stay on the tarmac and wait for them to drop the others off and come back to get us. The trucks pulled away, and then about 30 seconds later mortars started hitting the tarmac. They got tipped off that we would be there. I hauled ass for a bunker, and a mortar hit close enough that it tossed me like 10 feet across the ground, dirt clods hitting my face. It’s a miracle I didn’t get any shrapnel.

Afghanistan, May 2012: My platoon had QRF (Quick Reaction Force) that day. A truck hit an IED, so we had to roll out with EOD and a wrecker to go recover it. When we were about to leave, the Platoon Sergeant, myself and the other Section Sergeant stood at the corner of a T-intersection to discuss order of march back. Then we loaded up into our trucks, and started to pull away. Then another IED blew up… at the exact spot we were just standing 20 seconds earlier. Whoever the trigger man was didn’t get to the switch in time to blow it when we were standing there. Crater was about 2-3 feet deep and 7-8 ft in diameter. We would have been in a few dozen pieces if we’d stood there just a few seconds longer.