Im gonna renew this thread, Dan, my fellow Warrior, because I am too now pretty much obsessed with f*ckin' Afghanistan. It's weird because I HATE talking about it to civilians or family, much less my girl, but it is quite therapeutic to talk to a fellow OEF vet about the oh-so-interesting shithole.
MY FIRST IED
I remember my first day of my deployment at FOB Zangabad in Kandahar near Panj'waii, and our first patrol. I'm only 22 so everyone had a look on their face like "THIS is our new EOD?" So anyway, I went out as EOD support in a Buffalo MRAP with the Engineer and Sapper boys, and about 5 miles after a very very slow route clearance on Highway 1 in Kandahar, a known and very notorious IED hotbed, one of the enfineers spotted an unusual looking pile of rubble on the left side of the highway about 50 meters ahead, with a lead wire barely showing. So we slowly approach it (us being in the lead MRAP of the convoy, usually the Husky would lead the way, but ours was being repaired) And the engineer in charge of the articulated arm moved it remotely and used its claw to lift up the first rock (and biggest/most suspicious looking) in the pile of rubble.
Underneath that f*cking rock sat an industrial size pressure cooker (probably 75 liters or so) and we saw through the camera that it was attached to not one but TWO f*cking propane tanks, all wired together, with a lead wire heading toward a house (if you can call it that) about 100 meters north of the IED. Unable to disarm the IED with either robot, or the claw from the Buffalo, I decided it was time to put my agonising training to the test and prove my worth. I dismounted from the Buffalo, got behind it to protect myself from blast in case some Hadji was waiting with a button in the house across from us. I had two of the Sappers get me suited up, In a full bomb suit, they snapped my helmet on, turned on my fan and comms, one stood behind the Buffalo to give me cover, while the other got back inside to monitor my progress on this behemoth f*cker.
Heart pounding and rushing with adrenaline so much I could taste it, I now stood over something easily capable of quickly and painlessly sending me straight up to Jesus.... I found the rigging quite well thoughtout and complicated, and the f*cker even had SEMTEX (what the f*ck?) strapped to the propane tank. I found the Ignition switch, removed it, slipped the lead wire and went to work on the rest of the wires. After disarming this f*cker, I reached into my kit bag, pulled out two 2x8 inch blocks of C4, got out my leatherman, punched holes for the blasting cap, inserted them, and gingerly placed them on top of the IED, praying the whole time this f*cker wouldnt blow. I got the MRAP to back up, connected the det cord, rolled out quite some length of it, and took cover several hundred meters back behind the MRAP and waited for conformation so i could do this controlled det.
I yelled FIRE IN THE HOLE three times and pressed the clacker, and what followed was one HELL of a blast that from several hundred meters away, the shockwave still knocked me off my feet. As I landed on my back, all I could see was dust, an absolutely MASSIVE cloud of thick black oil like smoke, and hear debris hitting everywhere around me. After the smoke and dust settled, I took off my visor and breathed in the dusty, hot Kandahar air and felt more alive than I ever have before. And let me tell you, that was despite it being dusty and smelling like sewage and gunpowder, the freshest breath of air I have ever taken since birth.
I checked to make sure everyone was okay inside the MRAP and took my suit off, feeling a million pounds lighter. Everyone in the vehicle who had jeered and questioned my ability as a 22 year old EOD tech just an hour before, were now giving me accolades, high fives, "atta boys" and job well dones. A very powerful moment.
I guess you could say a major accomplishment for me, and my team, and my proverbial "indoctrination/baptism by fire" I can say I did my job that day well, and hopefully saved some lives. That is a day I will NEVER forget.
Thanks for listening,
Spc. Dave :D
