[ WP ] You wear a watch that does not work .

9:10. Even a broken watch is right twice a day. But what happened on July 27th 2011 ten minutes after nine in the morning was wrong. It was the worst day of my life. And the last day of two of my best friends lives. 
 
 We were on route clearance in Baghdad outside of Victory Base Complex. It was early but temperatures were already approaching unbearable. Imagine someone holding a hair dryer in front of your face and throwing sand in front of it and you might get a good idea of how miserably hot it was. After I had been there a few months I thought I was beginning to understand why the `` Hadjies'' 
 were so mad. I'd be pissed off too if had to live there. I did live there for a while at least, and I was angry. There was nothing special about that day until the bomb went off. We were trained and experienced but did n't see this one coming. They hid it too well and the IED just blended in. 
 
 It was too late. Before I knew it all I saw was white and all I heard was ringing. I tasted blood. I smelled smoke and burning flesh. It's one of those smells that nothing else smells like. I was being pulled out of the truck and the white light quickly turned to black. I woke up a few days later in Landstuhl Germany Medical Center. And they told me what happened. I was still alive and they *weren't*. I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back and kill someone. Anyone. I wanted to find the people who took my friends away from me, from their kids and wives, mothers and sisters. I still do. But I'm not a soldier anymore. 
 
 When I discharged from the hospital and went back to the 2/75 in WA they gave me a new uniform, what was in my pocket and on my person that day. My gear too including my knife, wallet, and my G-Shock. The watch did n't work anymore but it felt wrong to throw it away. It made me appreciate the fact that I too like the watch was still intact, but broken. So every time I look at my wrist I remember what happened that day at 9:10.
