12
by Gene O’Neill
1.Helmand Province, Afghanistan, June 2012—
In the late afternoon, the Marine patrol was headed back to their firebase at Fiddler’s Green mounted up in a pair of Maxx Pro Dash armored vehicles. The new, lighter vehicles were designed to move faster, but still retain MRAP capability—mine resistant ambush protection—against most common IEDs. Staff Sergeant Nolan Monday was the team leader in the lead vehicle, when a sniper’s shot rang out somewhere to their far right…Lance Corporal Edgar Montoya, manning the open machine g*n turret, had been hit.
They quickly stopped the lead Dash, pulled Montoya back down into the protection of the armored vehicle, and attempted to attend to his wound—his face an unrecognizable b****y pulp. Lying on his back, he made a brief gurgling
