03/21/2023
The brown cloud of dirt and debris cleared up, I could see the bright blue sky aboveā¦..when I aligned up with the horizon and everything was tilted 45 degrees to the leftā¦ā¦it clickedā¦ā¦we had just gotten blown the f**k upā¦ā¦
My brother Dan hits my right knee and yielded
āARE YOU OK?ā
Me: IāM GOOD
Then Dan screamed Webbās name and got out of the truck and thatās whenā¦ā¦.all these years after the fact and I still canāt manage to shake Webbās dying in pain screamsā¦ā¦desperately yelling for God to help him and more unstoppable screams of a man dying in painā¦ā¦
Not only his pain hunts me, but Iām also hunted by the fact that I told him āWEBB I CANT MOVE BROWN, Iāll BE BACK FROM THE OUTSIDEā
But I never didā¦ā¦.when I was climbing out through the truckās roof, was when I realized my foot was brokenā¦ā¦I stepped on my broken foot trying to help Dan and SGT Kaili open Webbās door and I collapsedā¦ā¦caught mid-air by one of the intel guys, I quickly realized that I was a casualty myself and was bound to interfere instead of helpingā¦ā¦.so I jumped in one leg to CSM Kellyās truckā¦ā¦I left Webb behindā¦ā¦.
Webb died on the way back to the hospital from the ambushed, our MEDIC, a dorky redhead redneck from West Virginia, brought him back to life.
Webb flat line two more times in the hospital in Mosul, in total, he died and was brought back to life three different times.
Once they were able to stabilize him, no time was wasted, loaded into a BLACKHAWK MEDIVAC HELICOPTERā¦.. went on his way to Germany then Walter Reed.
The pilot for that MEDIVAC BLACKHAWK, came back that night to Mosul and came to see me.
I couldnāt talk due to the morphine, he introduced himself and told me that Webb was stable the entire flight to Baghdad and that from his helicopter he was loaded onto a C17 that took him to Germany without wasting any second.
I believed, I vomit a thank you out of my mouth while holding tears back, the pilot put his hand on my shoulder and said āweāre gonna get themā to which I coherently replied āI know, Iām gonna get them when I get backā and that took all my energy because all of the suddenā¦.few hours had gone by and I was still high on morphineā¦ā¦never saw that pilot again.
When I made it to Germany, an Air Force LTC Chaplain asked me if there was anything he can help me with so I told him
āCPL TRAVIS WEBB, he was with me and lost his legsā¦ā¦I donāt know where he is and if heās okā
The Chaplain told me he would go find out and he didā¦ā¦some hours later he rushed into my room saying āI got good news, your brother Webb is here in this hospital, heās in ICU and heās stableā
I jumped out of my bed, the IV on my arm went flying, blood was squirting out of my arm and I face-planted like a champ on my roomās floorā¦ā¦The chaplain picked me up with another chaplain, they put me in a wheelchair and said āletās go see himā
On the way to ICU, I asked the chaplain what should I say if he asks, I donāt know if he knows we lost Brownā¦ā¦the chaplain told me that if he specifically ask, to tell him the truthā¦ā¦..
As Iām wheeled into his room, with a hesitant voice I said āWebb(?)ā that was the first time I could see the extent of his injuriesā¦..I was shocked and pi**ed offā¦ā¦.Webb came to and we made eye contactā¦ā¦
Webb: ITā¦ā¦.BROWN?
Me: ***eyes filled with tears*** heās gone, broā¦..
Webb had the same reaction I had when I was told about Brown, Webb said āhe just became a dadā
As I was holding his hand, his machines started going haywire, and I was wheeled out of the room in a f**king instantā¦ā¦nurses and doctors rushed into Webbā¦ā¦.he was dying againā¦ā¦this time he didnāt and the chaplain explained to me that he was a tipping point between death and life because it was me, an exception had been done so I could see him and that almost killed him.
Fast forward to 2012ā¦ā¦Webb had been off the radar for years, and no one had any contact with himā¦ā¦, Dan, Stevens, and our former LT, Major Bradbury were actively looking for himā¦..always ending at a dead end.
Then one night, I got on Google and simply type his name and Detroit, which is where he was fromā¦ā¦one of the first results was a white-pages website with his name, phone number, and address in a suburb of Detroitā¦ā¦
Me: Could it be?ā¦..***f**k it, starts dialing***
Webb: Hello? IS IT YOU MAN? (He still had my phone number saved)
Me: Webbā¦ā¦dudeā¦ā¦weāve been searching for you for years.
That was one of the last times I spoke with Webb on the phoneā¦ā¦.seeā¦..Webb stopped living on January 22nd, 2007. Conversations with him were like jumping on the DeLorean and going back in time as if nothing happened or as if it happened yesterdayā¦ā¦that emotionally f**ked me up, and I needed days in advance to mentally prepare to talk with himā¦..I couldnāt, it was emotionally unbearable to meā¦ā¦.lucky for me, Dan had taken charge and was the one that went above and beyond to help Webb, I was right with him but only for Danās moral support, he moved earth and water to try and help Webb back into somewhat of a normal lifeā¦.. as many amputees have done.
We discovered he had become a drug addict, he**in was his fix and we knew who got him into itā¦ā¦
Then on the third week of March, 2021ā¦ā¦Dan called meā¦..
Me: whatās up bro?
Dan: Remembered what we talked about the other day?
Me: SHUT THE F**K UPā¦ā¦..NO NO NOā¦ā¦.WHEN, HOW?
Dan: Su***de by overdoseā¦..he was determined because he did it twice, first time they got him into the ER in time but when he got back home, locked himself into a room and took all his pain pills at once.
Tragicā¦..painfulā¦..but oddly enoughā¦ā¦almost the entire platoon met up in Michigan for his funeral, that week was by far one the best weeks, Iāve had in a long timeā¦ā¦not only that, I reconnected with SGT Kaili, my first team leader and the strongest Hawaiian dude Iāve ever met, he taught me so muchā¦ā¦August of 2021, some of the guys and myself went to Alaska to see him and I need to go back to see him asap.
January 22nd, 2007ās mission took CPL BROWN AND 14 years later CPL WEBB.
SGT Kaili, Dan, and I are the survivors of that ambush and while we are far away from each other, we are always there on stand-by if needed and we know that of each other.
IN HONOR OF
CPL NICHOLAS P. BROWN & CPL TRAVIS WEBB.
