Lesson #3

by

Lesson #3 “Live your life like you are going to die tomorrow”

By: Kevin R. Flike

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Mountains and Valley in Northern Afghanistan.

the hat 1My teammate placed this hat on a stick to draw out Taliban fire.  Immediately after he exposed the hat, a member of the Taliban shot right through it.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Commando machine gunner to my right.  We traversed this trench line  multiple times, each time we were greeted with a hail of gunfire.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Commando Machine gunner to my left.  We sat like this for hours, while we waited to move to the helicopter landing zone.  
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
We had about 12-18 inches of cover in front of us.  At the bottom of the picture you can see the tips of my boots for reference.

Kevins pictureI kept this picture of my wife and I in my grenade pouch.  When I pulled it out on the ridge line, I thought it was the last time I would see her.

 

Kevin R. Flike is currently a graduate student pursuing dual masters degrees from the MIT Sloan School of Management (MBA) and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (MPA) with an expected graduation date of spring 2016. Prior to grad school Kevin served as a Special Forces Engineer assigned to the 1st Special Forces Group and deployed to the Philippines, Thailand and twice to Afghanistan. On September 25, 2011 during his second deployment to Afghanistan, he was shot in the lower abdomen and was medically retired due to his injuries.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *