Kaboom by Matthew Gallagher

Author:Matthew Gallagher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DaCapo Press
Published: 2010-03-22T16:00:00+00:00

Private Hot Wheels takes a knee while providing security during a dismounted patrol.

The explosion shook the combat outpost and immediately brought Specialist Haitian Sensation running from the fuel point to the northwest of Private Hot Wheels, and Doc and PFC Smitty came running from the northeast. Private Hot Wheels stumbled away from the generator, collapsed on the concrete next to it, and was rolling around on the ground in an attempt to douse the flames when the three other soldiers found him. Acting without hesitation, Specialist Haitian Sensation ran inside for help and a fire extinguisher, Doc ran to open up the medical aid station, and PFC Smitty started beating Private Hot Wheels’s body to help put the fire out. PFC Smitty then heard sparks from the generator.

“I heard the generator making funny sounds, and Wheels was caught under some pipes,” PFC Smitty recalled. “I just thought I had to get him out of there. So I grabbed him underneath his chest plate and pulled him out of the corner, like anyone would.” PFC Smitty suffered minor burns on his hands and his arms for grabbing Private Hot Wheels in this manner, but his actions probably saved Private Hot Wheels’s life. About five seconds later, a bigger, secondary explosion from the generator sent a new round of flames everywhere. Luckily, both privates were safely around the corner. However, all of Private Hot Wheels’s rolling and PFC Smitty’s beating had not extinguished the blaze on his body. Private Hot Wheels was still on fire.

Meanwhile, Specialist Haitian Sensation had burst into the combat outpost yelling and ran upstairs to grab a fire extinguisher. “I yelled, ‘Help! Wheels is on fire! Wheels is on fire!’ but either people couldn’t understand me, or they thought I was kidding,” he later said. “It took a couple seconds for them to figure out I was for real.”

One of the first respondents from inside was Super Mario, a young interpreter who had spent many late evenings and early mornings learning about America from Private Hot Wheels and my other young soldiers. As Specialist Haitian Sensation picked up the fire extinguisher at the top of the stairs, Super Mario ran past him down the stairs. He found PFC Smitty struggling with a now immobile Private Hot Wheels outside.

“Quick,” Super Mario told PFC Smitty, “tear open a sandbag and pour it on him.” Super Mario’s resourcefulness finally put out most of the inferno on Private Hot Wheels, as he and PFC Smitty dumped bags of sand on his body. Specialist Haitian Sensation, a few seconds behind, finished the job with the fire extinguisher. Some of the soldiers thought he had been on fire for fifteen seconds; others said two minutes. The time stamp on the video footage read thirty-four seconds.

By now, the rest of the troop had keyed in on what had occurred. Two Headquarters platoon soldiers arrived with more extinguishers and put out the still-raging generator fire. SFC Big Country, Staff Sergeant Bulldog, and others loaded Private Hot

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