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

[U S Army EOD]

I had one or two experieces like that in Vietnam and Korea. I had a fire base underground magazine burning one time and they were trying to put it out with foam. I tried to explain to this COl that explosives have their own oxcidizers and they were only trapping the heat. It was a local Vietnamese fire department doing the fire fighting. I told them they had to use water and even told the COL I would be willing to put on an OBA and take the hose into the magazine. I got the old, "Captain, these people know what they are doing and I don't want to hear anymore out of you", treatment. I left and when it went, Vietnam put several of their guys in orbit but they just didn't live through the re-entry.

[U S Army EOD]

Sometimes you can and sometimes you can't.

[archy]

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

Sometimes, sometimes not. Here's the story for you on one of the *nots*.

[U S Army EOD]

Still my favorite EOD story, and there I was EOD story that tops all other EOD stories, is when we had to remove the 500lb bomb from the pig pen in the leper colony.

[U S Army EOD]

This is one thing that people get confused about EOD, our job is to stop it from blowing up, not to blow it up and there is a BIG difference in that.

[archy]

"We had one where a soldier died trying to remove a bomb from a telephone pole."

Indeed we did.

SSG Kim A. [Fahnstalk] Voelz, EOD, R.I.P.

[archy]

Still my favorite EOD story, and there I was EOD story that tops all other EOD stories, is when we had to remove the 500lb bomb from the pig pen in the leper colony.

I have a couple of pretty good ones. But you win.

[U S Army EOD]

And then there is always the story of "The Great Big Shi-hung Ni S#$t Hole Incident of 1968". I shared my misfortune by immediately going to the snack bar and then the Officers Club after I was finished. There was an attempt to throw me bodily out of the Officers Club, but they couldn't get enough people together who were willing to put their hands on me to do it. I had the bar all to myself.

[archy]

***You cant come in here, soldier...***

***You can't stay in here, sir...***

***Specialist, I'll have you know I'm a Major...***

***Major, I'll have you know all the dosimeters have gone yellow.***

Amazing how quick it got lonely in there....

[Arkinsaw]

And why was the telephone pole so important? Blowing it up would be better and perhaps this soldier would be alive. Was this soldier an expert on bomb disposal and disarmament?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yes, I understand that. But isn't your job PRIMARILY to save lives and secondarily to save property? If the safest way to accomplish your primary mission is to blow it up in a safe manner and keep personnel at a safe distance, that would seem best.

A quick story; about 35 years ago right after the Percy Priest dam had been built near Nashville, a couple of Einsteins decided that they could blow the dam, flood lower Nashville and use scuba gear to loot the jewlery stores. (That's Wilbur and Norman Einstein, not Albert).

Trouble was they didn't understand shaped charges and simple broke into an access tunnel to the bridge and placed a box of dynamite on the floor near the middle. They then detonated it (safely) but managed only to blow the doors off the tunnel as the tunnel simply acted as a big barrel and funneled the energy out the end(s?). They spent a great part of the rest of their lives in club fed.

[Bobby777]

read the reply following that one and you'll understand.

[Bobby777]

oh, and welcome to FreeRepublic.

[Bobby777]

You're welcome. To further clarify, Christianne Ammanpour had interviewed a U.S. Soldier ... 3 weeks later he was terribly injured in a bomb attack on his vehicle ... his face was pretty torn up ... one frame he's OK and then 3 weeks later, you see the next frame and the guy looks like he'd been through a sausage grinder ... ouch ...

It was a deliberate bomb triggered as they went by ... as you reaffirm, this (thread) was an EOD job that didn't go as planned ...

I'm always saddened by the loss of U.S. soldiers ...

[archy]

And why was the telephone pole so important? Blowing it up would be better and perhaps this soldier would be alive. Was this soldier an expert on bomb disposal and disarmament

I don't know; she made the call. Maybe it was a major landline that if cut could have delayed resoponse of US units to calls for help from the Iraqis working for us. Maybe the point was to show the Iraqi bombers that no matter where their devices are planted, Americans can come and get them apart. Or maybe it was hoped that recovering the machinery would offer *signature* clues as to who had assembled it.

Was this soldier an expert on bomb disposal and disarmament

She sure was. For whatever reason, she went in after it rather than wait for additional equipment or assets. I wasn't there, but I'd bet a month's paycheck that there was a sound rationale to her decision to take the thing in hand herself, even if in retrospect hers may have been the wrong decision.

[Squantos]

Sad ain't it.......

Hope yer well Bro !.........Stay Safe !

[bryeod]

Replying to Squantos....I seriously doubt you are a true Indian Head graduate. You wouldn't boast about years and war trophies on a thread talking about a fallen EOD tech. Shame on you. Murphy is watching, and may you check all your fuse lengths from here on out twice.

Sincerely,
A person who's lost several friends doing EOD work!