Tower 2

'Tower 2'

Tower guard in Afghanistan was painful when you knew you weren't qualified to be there. I was Air Force but attached to an Army infantry division. Some over paid suit in congress thought it would be cute to get the Air Force involved in combative operations alongside with the Army. Avoiding pointless G.I. Joe action was the main reason I joined the Air Force. Now here I was, choked with irony, sitting in a fifty foot tower staring into the night beside an overly anxious to kill Army soldier.

"So, what are you writing over there brother?" Asked Private Enriquez. After numerous night shifts of tower guard duty, I had mastered the art of writing through night vision goggles.

"Ummm, nothing really. Just a letter to my ex." I replied not even looking up. I could feel his stares piercing my helmet.

"Your ex!? Why in the world would you write a letter to an ex?"

"Because I still believe."

"In the relationship?" Erinquez asked, sounding like Jerry Springer questioning a battered victim of domestic violence.

"No not the relationship... I still believe in love." I replied finally raising my eyes in his direction. He shook his head and stood up to glance over our perimeter. I started back into my letter attempting to resume my thoughts like a paused video game.

"Get on the radio!" He said in a loud panicking whisper. I stood up to see what he was referring to, and panic swept me off my feet like drunken charm. There were a group of men, well judging from their height and animated agility, teenagers, climbing over our camps fence. I was nervous and fumbled for the radio.

"Call it in!" Enriquez shouted.

"S.O.G., this is tower two, over." I waited for a response before I began; none came.

"S.O.G, this tower two. We have a group of kids climbing the fence.” I could tell Enriquez was becoming impatient.

"This is life or death!" I frowned at Enriquez’s choice of wording.

"That fool is probably sleep! We have to take matters in our own hands!" Enriquez said as he charged the machine gun. Without thought I leaped towards him and moved his hand away from the trigger. He looked up at me with a puzzled look.

The most important briefing we received was the one on Rules of Engagement. This preached on the negativity of war crimes. Basically the worst thing you could do in this situation is 'take matters into your own hands', especially if that involved an unauthorized slaughter of mischievous kids.

"What are you doing? This isn't training. There is no pass or fail here!" Enriquez ministered his Army jargon.

"Those are just kids man! Kids! We can't open fire on unarmed teenagers." I pleaded.

"Kids? You think bullets know age? You think that the trigger has a security mechanism that requires a birth date like a porn site? No" Enriquez shoved me back and refocused on his task. I tried S.O.G. again received nothing. There was nobody to stop Enriquez. I put my hand on his shoulder to try and get him to wait a second; hopefully S.O.G. would wake up in time, but Enriquez snapped and grabbed me like he demanded lunch money.

"Look you coward, you can climb down the tower and go stop the kids with verbal kindness if you want; just beware that I’m shooting. I’m not dying here because some Air Force vagina has a heart..." thankfully Enriquez was cut off by S.O.G’s sluggish voice.

"Tower two, this is S.O.G. you do not have authorization. I repeat, do not fire!" I was saved, well not me, the lives of a group of daring kids were. I will never forget the look in Enriquez's eyes as he released my collar.