I find that at night before I go to bed, my posts ...if I make a post....are so brief as to leave the reader wondering about the details. Last week when we had the rocket attack, due to operational security and just relative closeness to the event, I didn't feel it appropriate to be very detailed at all.
The night of the rocket attack was a particularly long night - because we had 3 separate attacks - each of which require us to get to the bunkers. Additionally for me, being the Operations Manager, I'm responsible for 100% accountability of our staff on site after each attack. There are roughly 1200 of us on Kandahar Airfield - give or take a standard deviaiton. So my night was totally hosed simply with gaining accountability of people and making sure they were all accounted for. On top of that I was on a staffing call with the Recruiting team in the US, which had already gone on for 2 and a half hours because of the detail we were going through and the previous attacks.
Rocket Attack - Safety. The reality is that by the time the alarm sounds, there are probably 3-10 seconds (ere on the 3 side) before impact of the rockets. Most of the time, there are not "follow-on" rockets. Unlike Iraq when I was there in 2007, most of the buildings here are NOT hardened structures - mainly metal shipping containers, providing little or no protection from indirect fire. So the best thing to do when you hear the alarm is to hit the dirt, wait 2 minutes time, then get up and move to the bunkers. Not everybody follows that procedure, but that's is the"best" advice. Running outside immediately could be bad because you don't have the time to make it to the bunker before impact.
The 3rd attack of the night occurred at about 2145 hours, and like most other attacks you don't necessarily always hear any impact. This time I heard an impact, but being inside a building - I couldn't tell where it was. I remember shouting to the people in the room to stay put until after a few minutes - which they and I did. When we emerged from the building toward the bunkers I heard someone yell that someone was hit. So I sprinted toward where they were pointing to find a man covered in blood being attended to by our medics. It appeared his hand was wrapped up and he was clearly in shock. I could see also a hole in the side of the metal container which contained a shower unit. Clearly he had been in that unit when the rocket struck. There were also people saying that there was another impact out in the road adjacen to the camp.
I made my way up the stairs behind where the man was sitting, and began going from room to room banking on doors trying to determine if anyone else was injured. I opened the door of the shower unit to see if anyone else was and could see the damage inside, including the blood and mess from the man who was injured. Our project manager also went inside the shower unit, and reported that the rocket motor was visible inside. It didn't appear that the rocket detonated, but simply impacted striking the individual. What are the odds of that?
It wasn't long before the base ambulance arrived to take the gentleman to the Combat Surgical Hospital or CSH (prounounced CASH). In the meantime the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team or EOD showed up to survey the area, and look for any unexploded ordinance. It wasn't long before they determined that in fact the rocket did not detonate, and had in fact split into two pieces - the warhead and the motor. Apparently the rocket landing in the road outside our compound, split into two separate projectiles, punched through the fence - through a vehicle and the motor entered the shower unit, while the warhead continued on over the building landing a good quarter mile away, unexploded. Frankly, if it had detonated in the street - there probably would have been less human damage, as the line of vehicles along that fence would likely have absorbed the blast. But it didn't, and in a 1 in a million shot, the motor of the rocket bounced up through a fence, a vehicle and into the shower unit precisely where a man stood brushing his teeth. In another 1 in a million of chance the rocket motor entered the building at an angle moving left to right in front of the mans face striking his hand which was holding his toothbrush to his mouth, causing significant damage to his hand (amputating his thumb), but missing his head by mere inches. Unbelieveable - in so many ways. How lucky this man was that the rocket didn't have a warhead at the time, that it passed within inches of his head, and he is alive. Reality check! This is real - and that combat first aid training we all received before we arrived.....time to bone up on it.
The post script here is that this gentleman is now back in the United States receiving the care he needs from a Level 1 Trauma Hospital - and with the Lords blessing will have a wonderful life knowing how precious that life is. We all can sense how precious that is .... we saw it with our own eyes.
The night of the rocket attack was a particularly long night - because we had 3 separate attacks - each of which require us to get to the bunkers. Additionally for me, being the Operations Manager, I'm responsible for 100% accountability of our staff on site after each attack. There are roughly 1200 of us on Kandahar Airfield - give or take a standard deviaiton. So my night was totally hosed simply with gaining accountability of people and making sure they were all accounted for. On top of that I was on a staffing call with the Recruiting team in the US, which had already gone on for 2 and a half hours because of the detail we were going through and the previous attacks.
Rocket Attack - Safety. The reality is that by the time the alarm sounds, there are probably 3-10 seconds (ere on the 3 side) before impact of the rockets. Most of the time, there are not "follow-on" rockets. Unlike Iraq when I was there in 2007, most of the buildings here are NOT hardened structures - mainly metal shipping containers, providing little or no protection from indirect fire. So the best thing to do when you hear the alarm is to hit the dirt, wait 2 minutes time, then get up and move to the bunkers. Not everybody follows that procedure, but that's is the"best" advice. Running outside immediately could be bad because you don't have the time to make it to the bunker before impact.
The 3rd attack of the night occurred at about 2145 hours, and like most other attacks you don't necessarily always hear any impact. This time I heard an impact, but being inside a building - I couldn't tell where it was. I remember shouting to the people in the room to stay put until after a few minutes - which they and I did. When we emerged from the building toward the bunkers I heard someone yell that someone was hit. So I sprinted toward where they were pointing to find a man covered in blood being attended to by our medics. It appeared his hand was wrapped up and he was clearly in shock. I could see also a hole in the side of the metal container which contained a shower unit. Clearly he had been in that unit when the rocket struck. There were also people saying that there was another impact out in the road adjacen to the camp.
I made my way up the stairs behind where the man was sitting, and began going from room to room banking on doors trying to determine if anyone else was injured. I opened the door of the shower unit to see if anyone else was and could see the damage inside, including the blood and mess from the man who was injured. Our project manager also went inside the shower unit, and reported that the rocket motor was visible inside. It didn't appear that the rocket detonated, but simply impacted striking the individual. What are the odds of that?
It wasn't long before the base ambulance arrived to take the gentleman to the Combat Surgical Hospital or CSH (prounounced CASH). In the meantime the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team or EOD showed up to survey the area, and look for any unexploded ordinance. It wasn't long before they determined that in fact the rocket did not detonate, and had in fact split into two pieces - the warhead and the motor. Apparently the rocket landing in the road outside our compound, split into two separate projectiles, punched through the fence - through a vehicle and the motor entered the shower unit, while the warhead continued on over the building landing a good quarter mile away, unexploded. Frankly, if it had detonated in the street - there probably would have been less human damage, as the line of vehicles along that fence would likely have absorbed the blast. But it didn't, and in a 1 in a million shot, the motor of the rocket bounced up through a fence, a vehicle and into the shower unit precisely where a man stood brushing his teeth. In another 1 in a million of chance the rocket motor entered the building at an angle moving left to right in front of the mans face striking his hand which was holding his toothbrush to his mouth, causing significant damage to his hand (amputating his thumb), but missing his head by mere inches. Unbelieveable - in so many ways. How lucky this man was that the rocket didn't have a warhead at the time, that it passed within inches of his head, and he is alive. Reality check! This is real - and that combat first aid training we all received before we arrived.....time to bone up on it.
The post script here is that this gentleman is now back in the United States receiving the care he needs from a Level 1 Trauma Hospital - and with the Lords blessing will have a wonderful life knowing how precious that life is. We all can sense how precious that is .... we saw it with our own eyes.On the downside - once EOD cleared our compound - which was about 2230 hours, it was back into the office - back on the call with the US - back at work until it was done. Still not sure how I feel about that.
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