This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter . It sounded like gunfire. Unmoving and fully awake, I listened from my bed; our cat, Butler, burrowed into my side. It was definitely a machine gun. Our house sat half a mile inside the base’s main gate. My heart rate quickened and my mind raced. Were armed men running on foot toward us, my kids sleeping, blissfully unaware of the