MILITARY: 'It's a calculated risk'

North County Times ^ | 11/7./2009 | MARK WALKER

[Saije]

On a wall near a makeshift classroom at Camp Pendleton hang 27 portraits. They are pictures of U.S. Marine Corps bomb technicians who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The portraits are a reminder to members of a newly commissioned bomb squad of the perils they face as they prepare to deploy to the war-torn region.

"There's no question, it's one of the most dangerous jobs out there," said Capt. James Shelstad, commander of the base's newly created 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company.

Shelstad and several members of his company sat down last week with the North County Times to talk about the squad and its mission, one that has taken on added urgency as the number of deaths from roadside bombs climbs.

Also known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the bombs have been responsible for 242 of 394 U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan so far this year, according to the Web site icasualties.org, which tracks battlefield fatalities.

In Iraq, bomb technicians are usually protected by heavily armored Humvees. That's often not the case in Afghanistan.

"There aren't many roads in Afghanistan, so now we're dismounted and out on foot with Marines on patrol," Shelstad said.

Marines who hunt and disarm roadside bombs are a confident lot.

"It's a risk, but it's a calculated risk," said Camp Pendleton Master Sgt. Rick Oldham, a veteran of three combat assignments.

As roadside bombs became the most common weapon in Iraq and recently gained that same distinction in Afghanistan, the Marine Corps nearly doubled the number of explosive techs from about 300 six years ago to just less than 600 now.

[Saije]

In the category of things I could never do.

[Terry Mross]

We allow muslims to serve and some of them kill our own soldiers. All of the ones currently serving and future enlistees should be assigned to this specialty.

[Secret Agent Man]

Why are we doing this the same way we did 60 years ago?

I have read stories about the army using laser weapons to heat up and explode discovered bombs, or firing ordinance at them to blow them up, or using vehicles with long cables with weights on them to blow them up,

all a good distance away. WTH?

So it goes boom and makes a hole. Fill in the hole with surronding dirt, then drive on the damn road again.