New Years Resolution free essay sample

As the sun was slipping below the distant horizon, I awoke a few hours before the calendar would change to 2008. The cool, crisp evening air was going to be a welcome change from the unbearable heat that bore down on us during the day. I didn’t really have the time to dwell on that I had gotten up late. Now my meal was going to be a dry muffin and some water that felt close to boiling in its bottle. Shoving the food down as I walked over to a dusty shipping container. I thought about what I was going to change this year. Maybe I will quit smoking or, get in better shape, and I really need to start some college classes. As my mind raced my hands did what they had done so many times before. I didn’t even need look at the thirty-pound medium machine gun that I was disassembling, and wiping down on the hood of a Humvee. We will write a custom essay sample on New Years Resolution or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As I placed the weapon into its mounted position I noticed the night sky was one of the most beautiful I had seen in a while. The moon was bright and the night was completely lit up with stars. My thoughts changed quickly as I ran through how difficult it was to use night vision goggles in these conditions.We would be running by sight tonight, not good when your job is to find bombs with pressure triggers the size of pencils buried in a 60-mile stretch of torn Iraqi highway. We left the base checkpoint, the small security team of five vehicles snaked their way up the service road. We headed toward the main highway passing the abandoned town in an eerie silence except the sound of rifles being loaded and checked. The bombed out store, and rows and rows of pancaked homes sat silent. I had seen them hundreds of times, and probably helped flatten most of them the last time I was here.For the next 12 hours I would be staring at rocks, chunks of curbs, and pieces of trash as if they were objects of a great passion. I had them all memorized the shapes, sizes, locations, and even the sand rippled around them. We had to. Even the smallest change meant someone had touched it, and that was usually a bad sign. New Years Eve looked to be in full swing. Bright white and green streaks shot high into the sky an occasional red. These were not shows of celebration. They were signal and illumination flares that turned night into day. The red flares signaled attacks, injuries and deaths. We hated the red flares. A mixture of sadness and anger always came with those. Minutes turned to hours as the methodical, searching, quarantining, and clearing before we could head to the next desolate stretch of road. Our heavily armored vehicles lumbered down the broken road. Our eyes scanned the road in front as we went up a small hill I felt everything in my body rise. What we were searching for sat on the other side, but this one was too close. The warning yell of â€Å"IED IED IED† came from the Gunner as he dropped his body into the safety of the thick armor. The same armor that the driver was now fighting against as he pushed the brake pedal to the floor. The brakes that were worn out screeching and the tires that had been patched many times over instead of replaced burned as they tried to stop an overweighed six-ton vehicle. I still swear as we came to a stop everyone let out a sigh of relieve in what seemed like total silence. The silence was broken as a fireball consumed my windshield. We were lifted skyward, and instantly there was dust and smoke everywhere that could not be distinguished. As we slammed back into the ground time seemed to slow as I Yelled out â€Å"anyone hit anyone hit. † As I received the gurgled responses and opened my door I grabbed a red flare.The red flare that we hated so much seemed to be made of lead. I leaned out and aimed at what I was pretty sure was skyward and fired the empty can falling as the little rocket flew through the dust and smoke. It lit the area in a red glow that I had seen all to often. As the flare burned Shouting to the world what was happening below. I stared up at it my vision getting blurry from the blood running down my face. I breathed out heavily pushing a red mist disappeared into the bright cool night. A smile spread across my face. Yeah that’s it, I’ll quit smoking this year.