I had just woken up with no recollection of where I was or how I had gotten there. It took me a couple seconds for my eyes to focus, though I couldn’t see much. I was on the wet muddy ground and all I could hear was faint shouting from a long ways away in the distance. I stood up and fell back down the second I tried to walk. My clothes were soaked, torn and muddy. Right at that moment was when I knew, something was very wrong.

The last thing I could remember I was riding in my special ops helicopter with my team. We had been on our way undergoing a secret mission to find a highly wanted terrorist in a foreign country. I had been sitting next to my good friend Sargent Walker and one of my best friends, Sargent Wittern. Or as I called him “Jack”, because that was his real name “Jack Wittern”. Jack and I had enrolled in the army together a few years ago and up until now we had been doing boring paper work. This was our very first time to be able to go out and actually get to fight for our country, to be in a life or death situation, shooting side by side and having to trusting each other with one anothers lives.

Suddenly the loud rumbling of thunder snapped me out of my daze and I saw a streak of lightning whip across the dark night sky. I needed to focus, where was my team? I stood up and looked around only to see a shocking image of our helicopter upside down in  a field, smoke rising from the engine and the smell of gasoline. I immediately panicked going over everything I learned in military training inside my head. How to do C.P.R, how to stitch a wound, how to stop bleeding, all as I limped my way over to the wreckage. Once I arrived I could smell the stench of burning rubber and black smoke. I reached my hand onto the latch of the door and pulled it open, only to see the horrific image of Jack covered in ash and blood.

I was dumbfounded. I put my 3 fingers across Jack’s neck to feel for a pulse. At first I could feel nothing, I kept trying until I could feel the slightest pump blood that showed life in his neck. We both needed medical help immediately, but nobody else from our crew seemed to be anywhere around. Was possible that everyone had left and thought we were already dead? I didn’t know what to do, I wasn't stable enough to treat myself, let alone Jack. It seemed as I was all out of options, this was the end and I had failed myself, my country and Jack.

I couldn’t going to let myself go down that easy. There had to be another way to save us, suddenly it hit me, the radio, I could use the radio to call in for help. I grabbed the black box and stretched the long black cord to the back of the helicopter where we were. By now I was fading in and out soon to pass out unconscious at any minute. I clicked the top of the box and heard a fuzz crackling noise, frequency. I tried to talk into it but all that came out of my mouth was an inaudible mumble. I tried to speak again now with my vision now fading I could feel the unconsciousness trying to swallow me, I managed to get one word off, “Help”. I fell into the darkness of the night and lost feeling of everything in my body, going unconscious.

I woke up in a panic, looking down at my body as I was lying on a hospital bed with bright white sheets that hurt my eyes to look at. I sat up. The first person I saw sitting right next to me, was Jack. “Hey sarge,” said Jack in sarcastic voice. “Wha.. how..” I had so many questions to ask but I was interrupted midway through my questions by Jack. “Chopper went down somewhere in iraq, our whole squad thought we were dead and had to fight their way through enemy’s just to get to a  friendly village of locals, they were flown back here to safety about a week ago.” Jack explained. “A week ago!? How long have I been out?” “Almost a week too. You radioed in to a near by unit that had been searching for illegal weapons of some sort. They came just at the right time we were both almost dead when they found us, they got us on a medical plane and flew us back here to safety. You saved both of our lives and did our country a great deal of honor, You are a hero.’