Back when I first returned from OIF III, I spent a lot of time trying to forget stuff. But as time wore on, much like I counted down the days until the tour would be over, I tracked my time less by the calendar, and more by upcoming anniversaries of bad days and the departed.

Much like I wrote about the very bad day that was when I lost my gunner (which I have written about here) today marks the 11th year since another very bad day back in 2005. You could even call it an epic, especially bad day. It is a day that I have wanted to write about for some time now, but is just very difficult to do so. It is fraught with a number of things that are hard to discuss, and fragmented in some spots which makes it hard to piece together from a narrative / timeline point of view.

Eerily, 11 years ago today – on Thursday, 28 April 2005 – we suffered a tragic loss when an IED destroyed a Stryker from the MGS Platoon of Apache, 1-5 Infantry just outside of the Al Sarai neighborhood. I knew people on that truck – one man in particular, whom had been a mentor to me during the month I was attached to A. Co. And though I want desperately to talk about that day, and explain what happened, what I saw, and what I did – it will take me time to piece it all together in a meaningful way. So today I pause to remember those who fell that day:

1st Lt. William A. Edens  of A. Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), 25th Infantry Division

Sgt. Eric W. Morris of A. Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), 25th Infantry Division

Pfc. Robert W. Murray Jr. of  Golf Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment

Spc. Ricky W. Rockholt Jr.  of Golf Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment

Rest easy, brothers. You are not nor never will be forgotten –