In either case, the story is well worth checking out. Here's a snippet:
And this is where the whole expedition turns . . . well, into a "Wizard of Oz" moment for me. Because as I peer through the haze of the Iraqi noon, the Buffalo's claw ponderously raking the grass beside the road, I realize that the heart of the Pentagon's program for defeating IEDs [improvised explosive devices] is: 1) buy some armored trucks with big windows; 2) send young soldiers out to drive up next to bombs; 3) investigate with a phone truck [which is what the author says the Buffalo reminds him of].
As Tate points out later: "I've seen tanks destroyed. I've seen Bradleys destroyed . . . There's only so much armor can do."
Fortunately, this particular wired rock turns out to be an irrigation pump. After another hour or so, I'm dropped off at a nearby patrol base.
Fifteen minutes later, Tate's RG-31 nearly runs over an IED.
McGorvin -- dubbed "the Jedi master" by his fellow soldiers for his ability to, as they put it, "detect ordnance" -- tells me about it the next day as he fidgets on a torn couch behind the TOC. He explains that he sensed the bomb a mile before he reached it -- noticing first the grinning face of a taxi driver who squatted down behind his cab to key a Motorola phone. A few minutes later as the convoy rumbled through a small town, McGorvin felt it again outside a cluster of mud wattle shacks, their yards suspiciously empty.
Then, all at once, his RG-31 passed a mound of dirt with a cone of rusty metal showing through its side. McGorvin's gaze locked on a sliver of blue plastic tucked behind the mound. "I got something!" he yelled. "I don't know what it is, but it's got a cellphone on it!"
The RG-31's armor wouldn't protect McGorvin standing in his gunner's nest, so, as radios barked and the convoy scattered, he tucked his thighs against his chest and squatted.
"McGorvin -- good looking," Tate shouted as their truck finally jolted to a stop outside the bomb's blast radius.
There's only one, teeny-tiny problem with the piece: It's not really about a "bomb squad," or explosive ordnance disposal (
God bless you clueless beautiful bastards-
It does not matter what we call our troops
that destroy the planted IEDs...they are all heroes. This is about PREVENTING the 'sand cruds'
from planting the IEDs in the first place. Any of YOU war dogs think of a planned tactic that would or could, preempt the positioning of the enemy IED or surveil the area we want 'clean'?, so we wont have such a large IED search element in our defences! No expense spared, go ahead think, your the experts...hey man you got it! "Secure the area to be free from IEDs night and day." Can we 'seed' the secured areas so we get signals if the 'sand crud' is sneaking around ...of course we can! Can we deploy (hide) weapons that will turn the insurgents to sand if they enter the NO zone? You bet...All we need is for you guys to think about it a bit. Let your noncoms know .. Sketch up your own design of an Anti-IED device. Man, be careful and God bless,
"Come back safe ya hear!"
Posted by: FLOODMUD at November 21, 2006 02:12 PM