WEBVTT 00:08.468 --> 00:11.051 (somber music) 00:22.853 --> 00:26.436 - Airman Clark, there was no better driver. 00:27.690 --> 00:30.663 He was better than I was as a driver. 00:30.663 --> 00:33.496 Every November we call each other, 00:35.237 --> 00:36.737 "Happy Death Day." 00:37.532 --> 00:41.115 We should've bought the farm and we didn't. 00:41.754 --> 00:43.980 It's a good chance for us to catch up. 00:43.980 --> 00:45.532 I'd love to be stationed with him again, 00:45.532 --> 00:47.782 he was an excellent airman. 00:48.070 --> 00:51.987 I would take him into combat again in a second. 00:53.489 --> 00:56.921 - I'm Christopher Alan Weaver, I'm a Staff Sergeant. 00:56.921 --> 01:01.088 I work for the 773 LRS and I'm a vehicle operator. 01:02.796 --> 01:06.296 I have deployed twice, to Iraq both times. 01:06.647 --> 01:09.545 I was tasked as a jet airman doing convoy 01:09.545 --> 01:10.628 for the Army. 01:11.624 --> 01:14.091 - [Narrator] If it wasn't for the joint team, we would not 01:14.091 --> 01:15.697 have made it this far. 01:15.697 --> 01:17.881 So you better tell your kids, you better tell 01:17.881 --> 01:21.906 your grandkids what you did here cause we made history. 01:21.906 --> 01:26.073 Thank you, thank your families, thank the folks back home 01:27.097 --> 01:29.528 and thank the folks that we lost during this mission. 01:29.528 --> 01:31.861 Thank you all and God speed. 01:36.395 --> 01:39.830 - The first time was with the 70th Medium Truck Detachment, 01:39.830 --> 01:41.112 the second time I was with 01:41.112 --> 01:43.945 the 424th Medium Truck Detachment. 01:44.004 --> 01:46.041 Two detachments both assigned to the same battalion, 01:46.041 --> 01:49.244 ^same company that I was with the first time. 01:49.244 --> 01:51.802 ^The Air Force had a permanent party, 01:51.802 --> 01:54.605 basically 400-500 vehicle operators were always 01:54.605 --> 01:58.272 deployed doing this mission ever since 2003. 01:58.624 --> 01:59.906 Anytime you go outside the wire 01:59.906 --> 02:02.739 you're gonna have something occur. 02:03.281 --> 02:05.732 Throughout the deployment we had complex attacks 02:05.732 --> 02:09.058 which is an IED in conjunction with a ground assault 02:09.058 --> 02:10.391 from insurgents. 02:11.742 --> 02:15.420 We had small arms fire, sniper, mortar attacks, 02:15.420 --> 02:17.503 rocket attacks, landmines 02:20.221 --> 02:23.638 and I saw five times the amount of combat 02:25.189 --> 02:29.294 and I did half the number of missions on my second tour. 02:29.294 --> 02:33.299 - Sergeant Wiedmer, he played the part of big brother 02:33.299 --> 02:37.049 ^to me, there was never a moment I didn't feel 02:40.136 --> 02:43.553 ^safer or maybe unsure when he was around. 02:45.764 --> 02:49.597 I looked to him for answers and he looks to me 02:50.613 --> 02:52.280 to get the job done. 02:53.959 --> 02:56.959 November 14th is the day we got hit. 02:59.085 --> 03:03.252 - We were pulling our last load out of a FOB called Warrior 03:03.988 --> 03:06.071 which is north of Tikrit. 03:06.986 --> 03:10.071 - And we had never been that far north. 03:10.071 --> 03:12.190 We knew that there was some dangers ahead of us being 03:12.190 --> 03:14.126 that far north, being without support. 03:14.126 --> 03:17.209 Going up there, Sergeant Wiedmer was, 03:18.237 --> 03:21.487 he let me know that it was a bad place. 03:21.800 --> 03:25.967 - So we're coming southbound and I had just cleared 03:25.971 --> 03:29.304 a traffic circle right north of a bridge 03:30.018 --> 03:31.935 and we ran over an IED. 03:33.513 --> 03:35.621 - [Muffled Voice] IED! IED! 03:35.621 --> 03:39.454 - So you almost accept that reality before you 03:39.499 --> 03:40.999 go out every time, 03:42.694 --> 03:44.361 and then it happens. 03:44.429 --> 03:47.109 - I remember the blast as the first wave came in 03:47.109 --> 03:51.052 the cab, I remember the door hinges bending out, 03:51.052 --> 03:53.634 I remember the fire coming into the cab. 03:53.634 --> 03:56.352 - Big fireball consumed the truck. 03:56.352 --> 03:58.695 - I remember the noise the bolt of glass made 03:58.695 --> 03:59.778 when it went. 03:59.874 --> 04:02.076 - It was orange everywhere. 04:02.076 --> 04:06.243 - Sound the armor made as the fire was cooking it. 04:07.721 --> 04:11.888 - He radioed in to our convoy commander that we had 04:13.710 --> 04:17.710 been hit but by that time everybody already knew 04:19.931 --> 04:23.014 because apparently it lit up the sky. 04:23.735 --> 04:25.418 - I think that's what people mean when they say 04:25.418 --> 04:26.902 their life flashed before their eyes cause that's 04:26.902 --> 04:29.224 that's what happened to me anyway. 04:29.224 --> 04:33.356 I was able to appreciate every single minute detail 04:33.356 --> 04:35.446 of what was occurring as it was occurring 04:35.446 --> 04:36.863 during the blast. 04:37.783 --> 04:41.052 - Sometimes I ask myself, "Could I have done something, 04:41.052 --> 04:43.499 "could I have seen something?" 04:43.499 --> 04:45.499 Maybe there's something, 04:46.781 --> 04:48.364 something I missed. 04:48.913 --> 04:51.746 - I'd never felt anything like it. 04:52.588 --> 04:55.691 As soon as I was able to fully turn my head, 04:55.691 --> 04:58.858 which was a couple milliseconds later, 04:59.256 --> 05:02.339 I yelled at my driver Airman Clark to 05:02.722 --> 05:04.606 get us out of there, get us out of there. 05:04.606 --> 05:08.510 - Get out of the kill zone, that's what you want to do. 05:08.510 --> 05:09.481 - We got ourselves out of the kill zone, 05:09.481 --> 05:12.385 which is always the first reaction you always have. 05:12.385 --> 05:14.290 You never want to linger in a kill zone. 05:14.290 --> 05:17.021 Everything's bad if you stop in that situation. 05:17.021 --> 05:21.188 ^- We were checked over by Army Medical personnel there. 05:24.037 --> 05:27.950 I was fine, we did find that Sergeant Wiedmer had 05:27.950 --> 05:31.450 been injured because his ear was bleeding. 05:32.092 --> 05:35.675 Years later I found out that the damage was 05:38.924 --> 05:43.091 more internal and more serious than I originally thought. 05:45.869 --> 05:50.036 His brain swelled and he lost vision in his right eye. 05:54.558 --> 05:57.308 I think about that sometimes too. 05:58.760 --> 06:02.593 I've definitely learned a lot from that moment 06:03.438 --> 06:05.605 and the entire deployment. 06:05.618 --> 06:09.785 It's helped me certainly to accept my own mortality 06:10.698 --> 06:14.525 and come to appreciate everything that we take 06:14.525 --> 06:16.358 for granted every day. 06:17.397 --> 06:20.314 - Dale Clark is now an amazing NCO, 06:20.824 --> 06:22.301 he was an amazing airman but now he's an 06:22.301 --> 06:23.301 amazing NCO. 06:23.886 --> 06:27.636 No doubt about it, he saved my life that day. 06:28.600 --> 06:31.963 I would gladly go into combat with him again. 06:31.963 --> 06:34.046 I trust him with my life. 06:35.497 --> 06:37.747 - I'm ready to go back out.