Preparedness

[Charon]

I also know that nothing other than going to a morgue can prepare you for the smell and visualisation of death.
I also know that you cannot duplicate the fear experienced when mortars land close by or IED's explode, or that gut feeling of being unsafe.

They did not prepare me for the smell and sight of death.
They did not prepare me for laying in my bed at nights wondering if I would be next.

I know the smell of burned bodies too well. Its a sickening smell and it haunts me. We got mortared fairly often, but I was always much, much more worried about suicide bombers. I knew there were spies on the base and less than a year prior a bomber had made his way into a mess hall in Iraq and blown himself up, killing a lot of people. I hate to say it but I was ready to kill anyone who tried anything. I know that sounds dumb and that its war and all, but its one thing to know where an enemy/front is, its another when it could just be any person in the crowd willing to blow himself up.