How was your first firefight?

[Bill Mattocks]

http://defensetech.org/2009/12/30/how-was-your-first-firefight/

Click on link to see video

So what was your first firefight like? My first time being shot at was in Afghanistan in 2004. I was on a 5-​​day patrol with some Joes from the 1st of the 501st and we were eating lunch with a border checkpoint commander when we heard a loud explosion. One of our uparmored Humvees had been RPGed and we rushed out to meet up with the screening patrol to assist. As we were barreling down the mountain in our Humvee we were being shot at with high caliber rounds. Then we dismounted and began to call in air and got plinked at for a little bit longer.
It was exhilerating at the time, but as soon as it was over my mouth was bone dry and I had to take a crap. And tha’s been the exact same reaction every time I’ve ever been in a firefight since.

 

[dbell]

Scarred the crap out of me, as I heard the first few rounds fly by my head (you actually hear them bullets moving too!!)

I'm upset though, looks like everyone carries a radio now, back when I was playing in that sandbox, we had only one radio on the team....

 

[Hudson69]

Myself and two other Officers were staged in the parking lot outside of a popular nightclub at quitting time, about 0200 hrs. We were just standing around and talking since presense alone seemed to be all it took to keep this particular location from falling into chaos. Over the past couple of months the parking lot here had been the place to settle "wrongs" that occurred inside; fights mostly but there had been one stabbing.

We were just talking when a purple Caprice stops in the middle of the road in front of the club; we were near the road side of the parking lot and about 30-40 yards away. Out of the passenger side front window a bandit crawls out enough to sit on the door and start cranking off rounds over the roof of the car with a Hi-Point 9mm (I know because other Officers caught up to them and recovered the gun).

The first two-three pops were like "What was that?" but as soon as I looked that way I heard a round hit one of our cruisers and I found myself trying to draw my gun and hit the deck at the same time (probably lucky I didn't shoot myself).

The guy whose car actually caught a round cranked off one round but by the time I had hugged a wheelwell for cover and drew out my own gun the Caprice was flying down the road at 90.

We called it in and close units stopped them in less than a minute but for about 30-45 seconds it felt like a rush; not like I thought it might.