I was driving in a 4 truck convoy, down a dirt road in Afghanistan. Like most soldiers do while deployed, we had rigged up an aux cable into our truck's internal comms system so we could hook up an iPod to it, and have music playing through our headphones while on patrol.
Our convoy was moving about 15 mph down a dirt road, through a small village that had about 50 mud brick homes in it. My truck was 3rd in line in the convoy.
I had my iPod hooked up to the aux cable, and I had my iPod in my hand because I wanted to put on some Rage Against the Machine. So, I was scrolling through my iPod while doing my best to drive down the road (which isn't too hard when you're only going 15 mph).
Then, with an ear deafening boom, I felt the front end of my truck get lifted up and slammed back down into a deep blast crater. Smoke and dust filled the inside of the truck, and dirt and rocks were raining down on the outside of it. My windshield was covered with dirt, and I could barely see through it.
I didn't feel any pain, but just to make sure I was okay, I reached down to check my legs, which I could not see because of the smoke and dust, and ran my hands all down them to feel for blood.
No blood.
My truck commander asked if we all were okay, and we all replied with "Roger Sarnt".
I looked out my side window, and saw two Afghani men running from a spot, that seemed to be the only place in the area where someone could have seen us, and be able to detonate a command wire IED (the IED was most likely set off by a wire because 1. that's how they typically did it in the area we operated in, 2. we have systems to jam radio and cell phone IEDs, and 3. a route clearance patrol had just went down that road, and they usually set off pressure plate IEDs with their mine rollers).
I made the decision to shoot these men, and I got my M-4 rifle out and went to open the door to start shooting, but I could not get the door open. My door was jammed shut. I watched these two men run out of my sight, into a building. I was so angry.
After everything settled down, I got out to smoke, and check the damage to my truck...most of the engine was laying in a field, several meters away from the road. My truck was nose first in a blast crater that measured 4 meters across and 3 meters deep.
The EOD guys that came out to us estimated that the IED was made with 150 lbs of explosives.
The truck I was driving was a MATV. They were designed to be able to take a hit, but they could not handle a 150 lb IED dead on.
All 4 of us in that truck would have been dead if I was driving just a little bit faster, or the bad guys hit the switch just a half second later.
Because I was searching through the iPod, I slowed down a little bit for a couple of seconds before the blast, which is why I think we missed taking the full force of that IED...so, thank you Rage Against the Machine for saving the lives of 4 servicemen.
That was the first time I was blown up, but it wasn't the last...it was definitely the worst though.
After that happened, I really started to value life a lot more, but I do have some mild PTSD from it.