Dinosaurs in Iraq!

Last night we were 'spun' up to go search for weapons of mass destruction in one of the remote locations of Baghdad. It was late late at night, and only the wild things were out. It was near pitch black, despite there being close to a full moon. It got really eerie around the witching hour.

Some of the things that you see at night, or don't see, but make up in your head, are very scary aberrations. The first thing I saw was something I would say I probably will never see again in my life. A dead horse on the side of the road in full rigor mortis. Very weird that the packs of dogs were scavenging meat off of this huge dead animal like they were vultures.

Other things that 'bump' in the night that we've encountered so far have not been seen necessarily but have been heard. Gibbens last night heard the spitter from Jurassic Park. Duffy saw what he thought was some kind of Hawk take fly past him and then hover. It just so happened that it was a ginormous bat. We caught some in white light from the headlights of the truck, and these things looked humongous and prehistoric. You'll hear sounds you only thought to exist in sci fi movies. You can't tell where they come from, and despite having your night vision goggles, you can't see into the night. Nothing is there to make the sound, and yet the weird sounds exist.

The gloom that seems to always approach at the deepest reaches of night and earliest reaches of morning doesn't help ease the eeriness of the situation you find yourself in. The headlights don't seem to reach as far as they did before, and the truck seems to run more silent in the quiet night. I half expect to turn a corner and see Michael Jackson and a posse of zombies doing the moon walk. You know you have 210 rounds of M4 ammo, and machine guns with thousands of rounds, but somehow it doesn't seem to cool the imaginary feeling of someone breathing down the back of your neck. Maybe it's the two Tylenol pm I took before we left on this mission mixed with the now 6th rip it I'm putting down my gullet that has me on edge.

As we rolled back to the FOB, it was very eerie. The Zombie Apocalypse might have been underway in the quiet of the dark houses on the roadside. The early morning hours are very quiet here in Iraq. Other than the dogs that freely roam on street to street, or the NP that sleeps at his post, there is absolutely nothing going on. No late night club closing down with drunk pedestrians hailing cabs or walking home. There is nothing going on. No Waffle House or Denny's with a young group of high school hooligans harassing waitresses. Perhaps that most eerie bump in the night. But despite the peace and strange serenity, I'll keep the shotguns loaded, and truck running in the event zombies pour out onto the streets in a thirsty blood lust, or I have to out run T-REX. In any case, who would've thought I'd have time to worry about Zombies and Dinosaurs as opposed to terrorists here in Iraq.

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