Hey Guys,
I haven't seen a high school friend of mine for awhile because he was servicing in Iraq. Yesterday out of the blue he comes into my bedroom (waking me up) and tells me he's in town and then left as quickly as he came. Today we meet up and get a chance to kick it and have a couple of beers along with some fine conversation. He asks what I've been up to since we last talked, so I mentioned that my new hobby in life is cannons and that I spend most of my free time researching cannons (history and such) and that I had bought a can sized mortar (from Dom). He then immediately says he has a story for me.
While he was serving in Iraq he had went to the bathroom. As he's urinating he hears this whistle... it gets louder and louder and suddenly he hears a crash next to him. As it turns out an 80 mm mortar that was being used against them had landed less than 15 feet away from him. It turns out that the Taliban will take mortars and freeze them so that in the daylight the ice will melt and the mortar will drop down on its primer and go off later in the day giving them (Taliban) time get away from the area. It ends up being a very effective mortar attack. It just so happens that it wasn't his time to die and the shell that landed by him was a dud. To say the least, thank God I still have my friend.
I will be shooting my mortar with him tomorrow and he would be more than happy to answer any questions that any of you may have.
Hopes and dreams,
Aaron
