A pilot describes his first combat mission in Iraq in 2007, when hearing a radio call triggered a dissociative "God mode" state where everything slowed down like The Matrix. He felt calm and empathy for both sides, realizing everyone just wanted to go home.
First time I was in combat was in Iraq in 2007, and I can remember the first time I heard a Nine Line being read over the radio. I could actually feel the back of my brain light up, and I went into this superconscious state that I'd never felt before. And it was almost like being in a God mode. Like, I could watch myself typing in the coordinates from like a third-person point of view or a witnessing point of view, and everything was moving in slow motion, just like The Matrix. As the bomb released from the wing of the aircraft, I had this feeling of calm, but I also felt this deep feeling of empathy and kind of had this moment of recognizing that the guys on the ground were just trying to get home to their family the same way that I was, and that we'd kind of been placed in this situation by our governments and events outside of our control. And really just kind of sensed that in many ways that we had a lot more in common than not. It was just an incredibly profound experience.
