An MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle is damaged when it strikes a pressure plate that triggers an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. | |
The Washington Post
Published: September 24, 2014
Our military convoy was 10 minutes into its journey back to the base when a loud boom that made my stomach drop pulsed through our armored vehicle and a cloud of dust obscured the one ahead of us.
For a couple of minutes, there was little sound but the noise of the diesel engine. Then an order came to dismount, and two soldiers dropped out the back. Javad Hassan, an Afghan American who serves as an Army interpreter, and I were left in the back, looking out the side windows nervously.
It turned out that the vehicle ahead of us had struck a pressure plate that triggered an improvised explosive device. Out the front window, I could see the U.S. infantrymen walking slowly along the road. We rolled along behind. Because I couldn't really think what else to do, I sketched Javad, who sat waiting, just two days from the end of his tour.
The damage to the vehicle meant that it couldn't be driven, but it had done its job protecting the occupants. To get us out of a possible ambush situation, one vehicle dragged the damaged one using a towline. The rest of the convoy followed, rolling slowly over the 5-foot wide, 3-foot deep crater in the asphalt roadway.
I sketched what remained of the bombed MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle the next morning.
Find more of Richard Johnson's sketches on his Washington Post blog, Drawing D.C. Together: A Journal of Urban Sketches and on his website, newsillustrator.com. Contact him at richard.johnson@washpost.com
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