AD

Two nights ago there was an emergency. A soldier was clearing a handgun found on patrol and accidentally shot another soldier in the stomach. The victim was sitting watching a movie in another section of their platoon's area. The bullet went through two sheets of plywood serving as walls for different living spaces. Right after it happened our headquarters platoon went into action getting the convoy ready to evacuate the casualty. There was heavy sand in the air at the time so there was no way to fly him out on a helicopter. We had to ground evac him to Balad. He is either still there or in Germany, I'm not sure. The bottom line is that when we left Balad the next morning to return home he was in stable condition connected to a bunch of electronic equipment with a bunch of tubing. It's a shame to have this happen so late in the deployment. It's also sad because there's no good reason for it.