Day #32 - BOOM!

Christen called me via Skype this morning at 6am (well morning for me, it was 10pm for her). We were chatting away when suddenly there was this enormous boom. My entire CHU was rattled and I felt the shock wave travel through my body as I was sitting there at the computer. The explosion lasted only 1-2 seconds and then everything was silent. I quickly asked Chris to hold on as I threw some clothes on and ran outside. It was a beautiful sunny day and all was quiet. A bunch of us were gathered outside of our CHUs speculating about what was happening. A few had their body armor in hand and were heading for the bunkers. Then came the all clear signal as we noticed a thick cloud of black smoke rising from the city about 1/2 mile away. I quickly ran back inside and resumed my conversation with Christen as she nervously asked what was going on.

It wasn't until later today that I found out what had happened. A suicide bomber had driven a truck carrying explosives into a courtyard between a busy train station and an Iraqi police department. He detonated the bomb killing seven and wounding 25-30 others. None of the injured were U.S. soldiers but I am begining to see first hand the horrible toll this war is taking on the Iraqi people. Most of whom are just trying to re-establish their country and start living a normal life again. I found this link to the N.Y. Times article with more details about the attack.(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/world/middleeast/01iraq.html)