I tell this story about being in Iraq and what it felt like, and I can liken it to an experience that almost everyone has had in their life. Have you ever been in a situation where somebody wanted to fight you and you didn't want to fight them? Like you were actually scared? And what happens is when you go to throw the punch it them, your arms turn into linguine and you throw the weakest punch of all time into their shoulder even though you were aiming for their face.
That's what combat feels like. Your stomach drops, you feel like you're going to shit yourself, your gun weighs a thousand pounds, your gear weighs even more than that and you are convinced that you were about to die. And the only thing that your brain can do because you are frozen still is scream OH MY GOD I DON'T WANT TO DIE I DON'T WANT TO DIE GOD PLEASE HELP ME DON'T LET ME DIE I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
The reason that they do basic training in the army is so that when you have that moment (and I don't know about other people but I did two tours and that feeling never went away) is when your body shuts down and can't move and goes into the I don't want to die mode, all that basic training that was drilled into your brain over and over again takes over for your brain. You are sitting there wishing to God that you saw your wife and your mother and your baby one more time and out of nowhere you just lift that M16 up and start fucking chattering it.
I digress about that the point I'm trying to make is fights are like that too. I was fairly confident this dude was going to kick my ass. Problem was when I hit him with three really clean shots to the jaw, right left right... He lurched forward and I thought I knocked him out. The mistake I made was not readily apparent to me until I realized he was on top of me. The fucker shot at me and double legged me. He was sitting on my stomach and the only thing I could do was put my hands up and block while this guy pounded on my face.
Hahahaha, I got my ass handed to me that night. I'm just lucky I didn't get my nose broke or anything serious like that. The dude was cool about it, when I yelled "all right I'm done" he stuck his hand out and pick me up and asked if we were cool and I said yeah and we hugged each other.
What started the whole thing is that was back when I was a smoker and I had a cig in my mouth and his girlfriend walk by me and I accidentally caught the cigarette in her hair. And of course egos and tempers flared, and it turned into something bigger than it needed to be.
God damn I haven't thought about that in years. Good times.
