1. Crash

It seemed a long time before anyone spoke but really it was only a minute or two. Slowly, both hands still gripping the steering wheel, I looked over my right shoulder and could see about two hundred feet of fence, and the thin metal fence posts that had held it up, were torn down. The convoy on the road above us had come to a stop and other crew commanders, of various ranks, were running toward us. Feeling awkward and clumsy, I got out of the jeep and walked around to the passenger side. The front fender of the jeep was barely hanging onto the body by a few thin pieces of metal and that side of the vehicle had too many dents to count. The jeep sat on-top of a wooden fence post that it had flattened. The senior officer, a captain, asked if everyone was alright and once it was clear there were no injuries, he seemed amused by the situation. He told me to get in and back up but the jeep would not move in reverse. Kneeling to look underneath, we discovered that the fence post I had run over had one end wedged up against the bumper of the jeep and the other end still rooted in the ground making it impossible to back up. He ordered me to drive out into the field and turn around and drive back out over the fence and up onto the road. There wasn’t a farm house in sight to report the damage to so we did our best to stand the fence posts up and hang the metal fencing, now with large gaps torn in it by the jeep, on the posts. Everyone got back into their vehicles. Nervously I looked at the lieutenant in the passenger seat. He still had not said anything about the accident and I anticipated some kind of reprimand or scolding. Casually he told me to carry on, and then added that I should keep my eyes on the road. I let the breath I had been holding out slowly. Putting the jeep in gear I pulled out to follow the one ahead of me in line.

When we reached the clearing with our tents in it, we parked the jeeps, put our personal equipment in our tents, and then lined up at tables where the already cooked food was being served. My lieutenant told me to eat quickly and report to our troop sergeant as soon as I was done. I found the sergeant waiting near my jeep and he told me to get in and drive. He directed me to another clearing where a makeshift mechanic’s shop had been set up. The master corporal who met us there looked at the passenger side of the jeep and looked at me. He did not ask how it had happened, he simply shook his head and began to work on the fender. He had it securely reattached to the body of the jeep in a surprisingly short time and we returned to the tents.

It seemed that in our absence the story of the accident with the fence had spread as I was being greeted now not by name, but simply as ‘Crash’. I decided that a nickname was a small price to pay for nearly killing my crew so I laughed along with everyone else.