I was driving back from Albuquerque and my phone rang.

“Are you going to listen to that thing?”

“I hadn’t planned on it. I am less opposed now but there are some things in my way. For example I have some questions to ask you about this. I don’t know what I am going to listen to and I think it would be better for me if I did. For example where are you in this? I don’t know where you go in this story and I would like to know ahead, I think. For example, were you in Iran itself?”

“Yeah. We trained a little in the desert, then a week or two in Saudi Arabia and then we went to Iran.”

“Okay, well you played the first bit of this for me and it starts with an explosion. I don’t know what you saw. Where were you in this? What were you doing? Were you in a building somewhere off site doing your thing?”

“No, I was on the plane,” he said sounding a little amused.

“Oh. Oh… okay, so you were right there then?”

“Yeah.”

“What were you thinking then?” I asked.

“Wasn’t thinking anything, I was just doing my job. I had no idea the complexity of what was going on. I really didn’t know until I heard that tape myself.”

“No?”

“No, I was like a first grader who just got to school. They give you a book and you read it. You have no idea what it takes to get the book into your hands. Someone has to write it, decide which book to buy, get it to the school… all kinds of stuff like that. But I was just a first grader, putting a mark in the circle not thinking much else. I mean I knew we were going to get the hostages but I had no idea all the layers of planning involved. I was private, P. I was just a kid with 1 stripe on my sleeve that you sewed there,” he said. “I really had no idea what I was doing besides what they told me to do - my job.”

“Oh, okay. I will listen to this then,” I said.

*Click

I called back a half hour later….

“There is more than one plane. Which plane were you on, I am trying to track.”

“Dragon One.”

“Dragon One?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay and how big is the plane? How many people were on the plane with you?”

“Oh, there were about 60 commandos and maybe 8 crew,” he said.

Okay, I’m listening. Bye.”

I realized as I started the cd back up that it was coming to the Saturn Return of this mission so I figured whatever I was going to get out of this would be significant.

Skip to Senses, Shrapnel and the Effects