MOSUL, Iraq -– This morning, Staff Sgt. Matthew Dudley found himself on the right side of luck. His Stryker armored vehicle had barely passed a buried roadside bomb on the road to the ancient city of Nimrud when it exploded, sending a shower of shrapnel and dirt on top of him and the three other men pulling "air guard duty" in the vehicle’s open hatches.
Those ahead of him in his convoy, including this reporter, heard the "koosh" of the bomb detonation, its thud so deep in octave that it seemed to physically echo in the chest. Soldiers slid into action. "Keep an eye out for the triggerman!" battalion commander Lt. Col. John Norris hollered into his helmet microphone. "Stay alert!" Despite this being the first such attack on this road in the past seven months, Norris wasn’t ruling out that insurgents would follow it with a second attack. [...]
A close call
Link to Blog EntryBy Kimberly Johnson, USA Today
MOSUL, Iraq -– This morning, Staff Sgt. Matthew Dudley found himself on the right side of luck. His Stryker armored vehicle had barely passed a buried roadside bomb on the road to the ancient city of Nimrud when it exploded, sending a shower of shrapnel and dirt on top of him and the three other men pulling "air guard duty" in the vehicle’s open hatches.
