For Stan - Iraqi bomb disarmament

[Cavguy]

All,

Had this sent to me. A group of Iraqi militiamen try to disarm an IED by digging it out. Predictable results.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=18f_1201000704

I had an IP do this once in my AO. We had a cordon set and were sending the robot for a look. We saw a 122mm shell with a motorola attached. We called EOD and waited. Suddenly an IP walks to the IED and grabs the motorola off of it with a 5ft stick. He waives at us and says it's all safe. Needless to say I waited until EOD arrived to approach. My guys often would have locals walk up to them and say they found an IED, when we went to investigate, often they had disarmed the thing themselves and were proud of turning it in. We also had many times when Iraqi police or Army wanted to "fiddle" with the IED rather than wait for the pro. <sigh>

Wow. Darwin at work. So sad though.

[Stan]

Hey Cavguy !

The locals looked like a bunch of monkeys foraging for the last root to eat!

Ever seen a deminer dig up an AP or AT mine with little more than a buck knife ? We’re talking 20 minutes of sweat and total dedication (for one mine).

I have an even dumber video of European police patrols attempting to disarm an IED in the middle of a public square filled with people. There was no 2-meter hole from the hard surface, but far more casualties (bystanders). Have to figure out how to download it to my photobucket.

As sick or sad as this may sound, it’s a one-man rule going in. Robots are nice (we have two), but that’s not their intent. EOD-7B, 8 or 9 bomb suits are fantastic tools, but that’s not their intent. One man in under 250 yards…we don’t take the entire team along to Saint Peter. Worse yet, if there’s one, there’s quite possibly another (IED). We deal with criminals that more often than not, place 2 or 3 IEDs - a clear escape route that obviously insurgents don’t seem too concerned with (thank God).

What were those vehicles doing so close following the blast? I’d have moved my Alpha backwards to my point of origin. Let the dude mourn the loss of his colleagues, prancing around and throwing his loaded weapon in every direction.

We had 3 command detonated IEDs utilizing cell phones in the last 10 years. One went off, the others were quickly found and rendered safe. No good reason to use a 5-foot stick and swat the cell phone off, but I guess that’ll work. 5 feet is already too close, so no real reason to use a stick (it’s not a cobra or python). Whether we render safe with a water canon or physically by hand, you’re only separating the power source (or connection) from the explosives.

Perhaps the locals with you got lucky.
Perhaps the cell phones or connections were primitive.
Perhaps (as we discovered here 11 times), the hero was part of the plot(s).

Far too many variables.

What did you say, Sergeant Major ?.......CYA Soldier !

EDIT: BTW, a real waste of a good 155 round employed sub-surface (Hollywood style).

Can't upload my video with an otherwise free photobucket account. I can try to email it via my Gmail account though.