Tom Hall: Something in the road
Clip 4

It looked like there was something in the road. In this picture [shows photo], you can see the handle of my M-16 hanging off the bracket. I always had it handy, so if something came down, I would be ready. We had driven maybe 5 or 6 miles when the driver said he thought he saw something in the road ahead. I don't know if it was the glare, but I couldn't see it, or make it out clearly. We drove closer and closer, and I saw that it looked like a human being. I put my rifle across my lap; it had one round in the chamber. I thought if something went down, I'm ready to rock and roll and do some serious dancing. As we got closer, this individual in the road appeared to have something in their hand. I told the driver something is not right. I started blaring the air horn and blaring the other horn and the person doesn't move. We continued to drive closer still blaring the horn and suddenly my reflexes automatically took my foot off the gas because that's just drivers instinct - when you get close to something which is in your way, you want to take your foot of the accelerator so you can start braking and slowing down to avoid it. As we got closer, I could see that whatever was in his hand definitely wasn't right. I told the driver to hang on, and I floored the truck, blared the horn and smacked the individual in the road with the right front of my bumper. The body went flying over in a ditch and there was an explosion. We found out that the individual we hit was an 11 or 12 year old boy who was holding an explosive device trying to kill us.