This Washington Post Magazine story, on “The Bomb Squad,” is one of the best reads you’ll get in the mainstream press on the reality of the counter-bomb fight in Iraq.
There’s only one, teeny-tiny problem with the piece: It’s not really about a “bomb squad,” or explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit, at all. Nobody is asked to defuse any bombs. Instead, the story centers around what appears to be a group of combat engineers — EOD’s blood rivals. These guys go combing roads for improvised explosives and, if they have any brains at all, call in EOD once the bombs are found.
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.
Rivals? The British had the 1st UXB (unexploded bomb) squads durting the Blitz. During WWII the Combat Engineers were trained in basic UXB methods. That’s where my father was first introduced to what was to become EOD. When he retired after 26 years as a Master EOD he went on to be one of the first instructors at the Hadzaard Devises School at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Al. He was always proud of being a Combat Engineer. Remember it was the Combat Engineers that finally blew the wall at Omaha Beach, he was there.
I flew UAV’s in Iraq and always thought that if you get a UAV to follow behind a Buffalo you could catch these &(*&^ ‘s putting IED’s in after a pass. I could never get approval being only a lowly enlisted. Does anyone think this would work?
Just think of how many more lives that could have been lost without these guys. God Bless all of our Men and Weman who are putting their life on the line. Its ashame that IDIOTS LIKE JOHN KERRY AND NANCY POLOSI CAN ENJOY THE FREEDOM OUR GUYS ARE FIGHTING FOR WHICH THEY ARE AGAINST.
As a Combat Engineer with 14 mouths combat experence on the mean streets of west Baggdad I can tell you that the buffalo is indespensable and we need more of them and the crazy SOB’s, combat engineers that drive them and operate them at all hours of day and night, I tip my stetson to them. Combat Engineers breach the way
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!”