Band of Brothers!!

Many people don't understand the bond between mates in the Armed forces, unless you've been through it, it's hard to understand. I'm gonna tell you a (Little) story to put it into perspective. I spent 7 years in the British Army as a Combat Medic and made some very good friends, who I now see as my brothers.

It's 2003 and we're on operational tour in Iraq, well North Kuwait on the border of Iraq to be precise. The conflict starts and our field hospital is attacked daily with mortars. Due to our inaccurate intelligence our unit is under the impression these attacks are chemical weapons. This means we spend our days in NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) suits, this in 40-50 degree heat is very uncomfortable to say the least. The bombardments come in waves, "Gas! Gas! Gas!" echoes through the grounds. Once again we all go through the immediate action procedures of fumbling with our gas masks trying desperately to get them on our faces. I turn to my buddy and make sure his gear is secure and on properly, he returns the favour. Together we run (with our weapons) to the closest trench for some cover. We sit in the trenches listening as gunfire is heard in the distance, and bombs are exploding nearby. Suddenly, a loud rumbling is heard through the air, "Get down" someone shouts. My mate next to me grabs my head, pulls it down, and shelters me with his body. We wait, for what seems like an eternity, but in fact is only a few seconds. No explosion, the rumbling still gets louder. We pluck up the courage to look, what do we see? A huge truck being driven past by one of the local Kuwaiti contractors, he casually looks down at us and smiles. We all look at each other in relief, and being squaddies we find the situation hilarious and we all crack up laughing. But I got something else out of that situation other than a laugh, I realised what my army mates really mean to me, and what I mean to them. We are a Band of Brothers.

 

Great story. I hope that you stay in touch with your army mates.

Veterans day was yesterday (Tuesday) in the U.S.

 

Great story. I hope that you stay in touch with your army mates.

Veterans day was yesterday (Tuesday) in the U.S.

 

Thanks @jrbiz glad you enjoyed the story. Yeah, I do stay in touch with my closest mates from the Army. We also get together every year to reminisce, and get very drunk lol.