combat

Saturday was the first serious combat situation I have been in. Around 10:53 I was in bed and heard a very big boom. To me it sounded like outgoing fire, meaning that we had shot off something. I heard someone yelling in the hallway that it was not a drill so immediately I put on my gear and got to my position. During base defense I am assigned to tower #7. As I was running to the tower I could hear weapons being shot and had loud explosions going off over head. I did what I was trained to do during those situations and I got down and got as much cover as I could. I moved along the hesco barriers that are next to every building until I reached my tower. Tower 7 is located on the western side of the FOB, we were being shot at from the western side. I could see the Afghan army shooting but did not know what they were shooting at. I positioned myself along the wall of the tower keeping an eye on the hole that is in the ANAs wall and watching the perimiter. Air support showed up around 11:35 and they began to scatter. We were in the tower until 1am and were then released. No US or Afghan soldiers were injured. There were 5 local nationals that were killed. I do not know if they were killed by the Afghans or by the taliban.