Ask Old Man Jokhah

[Old Man Jokhah]

I was a medic, attached to a platoon of combat engineers who were tasked with route clearance. We were sent on a mission to go relieve another platoon from the same troop (same as company, Cavalry uses slightly different terms). Day 1, we made it to stopping point with little to report. Day 2, continued movement to target location. We entered a pass in the mountains. Before I continue, here is some information you should have.

-Most of the convoy consists of RG-31s. Want to say 2-3 additional to mine.
-We also had one Buffalo, one Husky with GPR, one wrecker.
-At the time, no one was trained to a degree of skill that would be deemed anything higher than basic with that GPR
-I was in the last truck, not to say all medics are in the last truck, it's quite a "ball and cup" game with medics for safety purposes.
-Moondust is a term used to describe the baby powder fine dust like sand that is all over Afghanistan.
-HME refers to Home Made Explosive.

As this pass wasn't frequently traveled, there was about 9 inches (3/4 of a foot) of moondust on the ground and it kicks up very badly. Our drivers try very very hard to stay in the treads of the truck in front to avoid anything we might have missed. My driver was basically blind, about 1-3 feet of visability due to all the trucks in front and all the dust. He was about 4-6 inches outside of the treads, to the left and clipped a victim operated initiator. This triggered an unknown amount of HME jugs or barrels, we predict that it was between 35-65 lbs. You'd think it would be easier to determine this, but it's not apparently and I'm not an engineer so I have no clue beyond what they tell me. I don't remember the blast, all I fully remember is my helmet stoping my face from smashing into the radio equipment, then off my aidbag, I managed to stop any further bounces. Did some checks, crew was up, rest of platoon was in a panic, our comms were down so we had to use chemlights to let them know we were alive and okay. We got the truck towed and we ended up camping out a bit away from there due to lack of visability and lack of communication with target location. I assume that platoon leadership didn't want us rolling into more bad shit in the dark or catching friendly fire.

Next day, I ended up nearly blacking out after doing routine medical drills with the medic at target location. He determined I had some degree of TBI and wanted to medevac me, I refused both he and the 1SG, raising the arguement that you cannot roll out without a medic.

Following days after that till my eventual medical discharge, the pain has progressively gotten worse. There is no level of treatment for it at this time, as it has to get worse before the risks of any surgery are worthwhile. So long story short, no, it won't ever get better at this current point in time due to medical limitations and my lack of wanting to be paralyzed by a VA doctor who probably doesn't give a shit about me anyway.

There was an investigation during my medical board that determined, based on statements collected from other persons in that truck, that I hit the ceiling, it was noted that I did not have access to proper safety restraints (Seatbelt, the truck was over crowded). I was honorably discharged due to inability to continue to perform my duties as a soldier in general. If you can't wear a vest, carry the gear, or even go lengths with a helmet, what good are you? I could have pushed paperwork, but I declined the offer because that isn't how I wanted to serve.

Here is the truck I was in, that was hit by the IED, as taken by my platoon sergeant.



There is a lot of information left out. Some of it doesn't pretain to the question, some of it I'm simply not allowed to say till Jul 6 2020ish.