Part 38 (2/2)

A hard thing to admit, let alone stomach.

Our daughter was fine. I took her and held her. I'd been as distant toward her as I had been toward our son before he was born; now, holding her, I started to feel real warmth and love.

Taya looked at me strangely when I tried to hand her the baby.

”Don't you want to hold her?” I asked.

”No,” she said.

G.o.d, I thought, she's rejecting our daughter. I have to leave and she's not even bonding.

A few moments later, Taya reached out and took her.

Thank G.o.d.

Two days later, I deployed.

CHAPTER 9

The Punishers

”I'M HERE TO GET THOSE MORTARS”

You would think an army planning a major offensive would have a way to get its warriors right to the battle area.

You would think wrong.

Because of the medical situation with the cyst and then my daughter's birth, I ended up leaving the States about a week behind the rest of my platoon. By the time I landed in Baghdad in April 2006, my platoon had been sent west to the area of Ramadi. No one in Baghdad seemed to know how to get me out there. It was up to me to get over to my boys.

A direct flight to Ramadi was impossible-things were too hot there. So I had to cobble together my own solution. I came across an Army Ranger who was also heading for Ramadi. We hooked up, pooling our creative resources as we looked for a ride at Baghdad International Airport.

At some point, I overheard an officer talking about problems the Army was having with some insurgent mortarmen at a base to the west. By coincidence, we heard about a flight heading to that same base; the Ranger and I headed over to try to get onto the helicopter.

A colonel stopped as we were about to board.

”Helicopter's full,” he barked at the Ranger. ”Why do you need to be on it?”

”Well, sir, we're the snipers coming to take care of your mortar problem,” I told him, holding up my gun case.

”Oh yes!” the colonel yelled to the crew. ”These boys need to be on the very next flight. Get them right on.”

We hopped aboard, b.u.mping two of his guys in the process.

By the time we got to the base, the mortars had been taken care of. We still had a problem, though-there were no flights heading for Ramadi, and the prospects of a convoy were slimmer than the chance of seeing snow in Dallas in July.

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