Two U.S. Soldiers Die Clearing Explosives in Iraq

Yahoo ^ | 2/8/04

[areafiftyone]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six were wounded Monday while trying to clear explosives in northern Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military said.

The explosion, which occurred near the city of Sinjar outside Mosul in northern Iraq, appeared to be an accident, a spokeswoman for the military said.

"They were conducting explosive ordnance disposal when it happened," Sergeant Sonja Whittington said.

Sinjar is about 250 miles north of Bagh

[The G Man]

... and smirks crossed the faces of John Kerry, the Washington Press Corps, and the folks over at DU.

[areafiftyone]

****SIGH**** Yes I am sure they are enjoying it. They make me sick! Rest in peace brave soldiers! :-(

[Arkinsaw]

So many are dying while clearing explosives. In my view, if they know about the explosives beforehand then there should be no way a US soldier dies from them.

These things should be blown up by an RPG or something from range. Not by sending an infantryman who is not a bomb disposal expert to look at the bomb.

We had one where a soldier died trying to remove a bomb from a telephone pole. Newsflash: Iraqi telephone poles are not that important...blow it up and then move on.

[areafiftyone]

Isn't there a way to send a robot out to distroy the explosives?

[nevergore]

Send in a democrat for bomb disposal.....At least they wouldn't be missed.....

NeverGore ;^)

[Owen]

Deaths are bad. Combat deaths are worse. These aren't combat deaths. There have been 3 this month and it is February 9. And it's a short month. In terms of progress, we are likely to be way down this month from January and December on combat losses.

And it will get better. Iraqi police are being trained and they will be who do the foot patrols and convoy duty. We can redeploy to watch the oil facilities. And we're going to be reducing troop strength there this year anyway as July approaches.

I anticipate steadily decreasing combat death numbers.

[dighton]

Isn't there a way to send a robot out to distroy the explosives?

Pinging two who know this subject.

[antiRepublicrat]

EOD is a dangerous job. I had some training in it while in the Army as part of my MOS, but I'm glad I didn't take the whole 55D MOS -- those guys really live on the edge. There's a reason 55D has an extremely high reenlistment bonus.

[areafiftyone]

LOL - Maybe they should send in Gore. I saw a clip of him this morning on Fox and Friends. The man looked like his head was going to explode.

[Bobby777]

there are two places in the world this type of attack is carried out ... on a regular basis ...

1) against Israel

2) against U.S. Forces in Iraq

the same people (groups) are responsible for both ... count on it ... yes, PLO-backed Hamas, Hizbollah, Fatah, PFLP, whomever are instructing and directing these attacks ... with the help of certain Iraqi factions ... I'd say this is a pretty good probability ...

[Bobby777]

(clarification) ... I mean the roadside bombs, etc. This was an explosives-clearing thing ... I was talking about what happened to a "Big Red One" soldier that was on the news yesterday ...

[Squantos]

The way to keep these folks alive is to NOT talk about HOW ! Too many brag about their knowledge of such things based on what they see or think they know as fact . Yeah yeah yeah....terrorist don't read FR so it's OK to tell it here is the mantra but render safe procedures and Standard Operating Procedure is no ones business by the EOD communities.

Anyone who ever watched 15 minutes of Mr Wizard knows how to apply the lesson to IED's. Things we see in everyday life from a soft drink machine that yells at ya when you get close enough to a toy puppy that does back flips when you reach for it have basics for making an IED ya can't even get close to much less examine before it'll go kaboom. There are submunitions that if a mere shadow is cast upon them from the soldier walking near em will detonate. Stockpiles must be examined as chemical weapons have in the past been mixed in among the conventional weapons as we saw in Desert Storm. Can't just let willy nilly blow it in place or you create a bigger mess than ya started with.

Sadly there are Engineers who think they are EOD qualified because they have construction/deconstruction demolition and mine clearing skill....... A smart technician EOD or not stops if s/he can't be 100% sure of their environment and the task at hand.

In Desert Storm EOD found a bunch of engineers (7) seven to be exact that were stacking a submunition that had an all way acting fuse and should have been blown in place. When the senior EOD troop present tried to stop the process he was ordered off the site by the engineers commander and NOCIC. He protested again and was threatened with arrest if he didn't shup up and depart.

The EOD troop had his team member and 2 french sappers with him and departed. They didn't get more than a quarter mile away when the "stack" of munitions detonated....aka functioned as designed....killing all seven engineers trying to clear the submunition feild.

My friend and class mate from Indianhead EOD school, the EOD troop who tried to stop em was so bothered by this he had nightmares and talked to others that he should have stood his ground and forced em to stop their unsafe operation . His every waking moment was consumed by what he felt was a failure on his part and he took his own life a few months later. Unable to deal with it.

IED, submunitions , UXO, old munitions abandoned are extreamly dangerous and that's why you try to put the best of the best who don't get complacent in that job.

Just my two cents based on my career in EOD......Stay Safe !

[antiRepublicrat]

The EOD guys I really feel sorry for are those clearing WWII UXO that's always found during construction in Germany. No option to blow in place -- gotta defuse and remove. My favorite EOD moment? Instructor at the Fort Sill range before we were supposed to blow stuff up telling us to be careful of UXO and not to touch, etc., all the while he was standing on an old rusted mortar round.

Good to hear from a real EOD guy here, glad to see you made it through your career intact.

[dighton]

Thanks, Squantos.

[Squantos]

Thanks.... I'm still at it, albeit as a contractor now. 32 years and counting.....tick ....tick....tick.........:o)

Stay Safe !!

[Squantos]

Your welcome......hope I don't offend by not going into IED's 101 here...........Stay Safe !

[Eagle Eye]

So the next time y'all have a controlled detonation would you give us a 'heads up'?

Scared the bejeezus outta us the other day...


(Even though I've been mortared on at least two other bases, this was the first time I was ducking and looking for serious cover. And it was our guys doing it!)

[RandallFlagg]

That reminds me. I showed this video to the guys at work. One of them was shocked and said, "Ya know, that's not something to celebrate. It's the taking of human life. And every life is precious." The room told him that we took the lives of "Humans" placing roadside bombs that would kill our troops.

He kinda just shut his hole after that.

[dighton]

Your welcome......hope I don't offend by not going into IED's 101 here

No offense, far from it!

I'll take the liberty of repeating something you said, which IMHO bears repetition:

The way to keep these folks alive is to NOT talk about HOW ! Too many brag about their knowledge of such things based on what they see or think they know as fact . Yeah yeah yeah....terrorist don't read FR so it's OK to tell it here is the mantra but render safe procedures and Standard Operating Procedure is no ones business by the EOD communities.