Disarming the Bomb, Part 9

Breach Point West, Iraq 2003

Continuing from Part 8…

It was around 2330 (11:30pm) when T-Bone and I passed through the breach point. We had to link up with the 6th ESB so that we could support the laying of the fuel line that would be crucial for the war effort, refueling for the forces. These refueling points were called RRPs, or Refueling and Replenishing Points. We were to escort the 6th ESB to Camp Viper. Camp Viper, a US Marine Corps operating location, was located near the ancient city of Ur, Iraq. It’s located in southern Iraq near Jalibah Southeast Airbase, 370 kilometers south of Baghdad, and 65 kilometers south of Al Nasariyah.

It was a crisp clear night. I remember the stars were so clear. Being in the middle of the desert with no city lights to dilute the visibility of the stars was refreshing. We stopped to get a few hours of rest before daybreak. The landscape was pure Biblical. The Iraqi people in this area were spread out. No structures, just tents made of sticks and what appeared to be carpets. These people had no idea who we were. I don’t even think they knew who Saddam was. These people were extremely isolated and lived only off the desert land. I was so amazed at these people.

How do they even survive out here in this environment? I remember thinking to myself.

There were 5 to 6 kids in each camp we passed by. Hardly clothed, and very dirty. They looked happy though. I always admired that from these specific Iraqi people. I’ll never forget them, way out in the middle of the desert, with small patches of green grass for their goats to consume. How they watered these patches of grass still to this day mesmerizes me.

The kids would run over to our vehicle and gesture with their hands to their mouths asking for food or water. T-Bone and I had candy that we would save from the MREs we ate. The candy was called Charms. Apparently those candies were bad luck for the Marines to eat and they would always give them away. We would throw these kids bottles of water and Charm candies. It was like we were the most popular rock stars on the planet. It made me feel like a total hero. I remember thinking, this is why we are here, to liberate these kids and families from Saddam.

We met up with the commander of 6th ESB. They were a reserve unit, thrown into this invasion, mostly kids and very well educated. Most had college degrees and decent jobs back at home. As educated as they were, common sense was not one of their strong points….

We started our mission to lay the fuel lines from Camp Coyote to Camp Viper. We literally was going no faster than 1.5 to 2 MPH. It was treacherous!! But it was a good thing that T-Bone and I had set up the CD player. We just blasted 3 Doors Down the whole way. There was no enemy around. The combat Marines already passed by this area and defeated the enemy; there weren’t many of them, if any. Most of them abandoned their spots and hightailed it to Baghdad. Before we left Camp Coyote, T-Bone and I also gave the Marines classes on how to identify UXO (unexploded ordnance). We staged ourselves behind their last vehicle.

They had four Marines that would walk in front of the lead vehicle to search for UXO. As EOD, we don’t search. We teach others how to search. And when they find something, then they call us. Why? There just aren’t enough of us EOD guys to support every unit to conduct searches. Furthermore, military units, especially combat units, needs to be self-sufficient when pushing forward. So if these units find UXO or IEDs, they will mark them and circumvent. If they can’t, then they will call us to clear the hazard. Military EOD units have one primary mission: to enable access. EOD service helps preserve the commander’s combat power at the operational and tactical levels.

The challenge for EOD is to help maintain the maneuver, firepower, sustainment, and protection functions across the full range of military operations. The continuing development of world-wide high-technology munitions that disperse numerous sub-munitions and area denial ordnance has led to the proliferation of UXO/IEDs. These munitions are available for a range of weapons systems, including artillery, ballistic and cruise missiles, rockets, IEDs and bombs. On the battlefield, UXO can be conventional high explosives (HE), chemical, biological, nuclear ordnance, or IEDs.

UXO limits battlefield mobility, limits the use of critical assets, and threatens to injure or kill soldiers and civilians at levels unprecedented in past wars and peacetime operations. The vast amounts of UXO found all around the world following conflict testify to the increased proliferation. All units in the U.S military must be able to cope with UXO and IEDs on the battlefield. This calls for awareness training for all soldiers and for procedures that limit the effects of UXO on operations. At times, EOD units will operate jointly with other non-EOD units, other services, or allied EOD units to perform counter-UXO/IED operations.

T-Bone and I, and all the marines we supported, didn’t sleep for 3 days. It was weird because I don’t remember being tired at all. The only rest we tried to get was right after we breached into Iraq before we linked up with 6th ESB. Even then, T-Bone and I didn’t sleep a wink.

My Second UXO EOD Mission

The second day during this mission the vehicle convoy stopped. The Marines that were searching for UXO came to our vehicle.

“Hey guys, I think we got something,” one of the Marines said.

T-Bone and I got out of our vehicle to inspect what they had. Right in the middle of our path was a Chinese rocket-assisted projectile. It was nose into the ground and the ground was as hard as concrete. It found the one patch of this vast soft sand desert that was hardened dirt. Go figure. This mission was crucial and any delays would be catastrophic to the war effort.

“Sir, can we go around it?” T-Bone asked the Commander.

“Hell no, we can’t go around it! Do you guys realize the calculations that went into this operation?! Every inch of this fuel line was calculated for our exact pathway,” the commander responded.

“Roger that,” said T-Bone.

T-Bone and I walked back to Betsy.

“Why would they not calculate for deviation of the pathway?? Seriously?” I said to T-Bone.

“I know right? Let’s see if we can remote pull this out of the ground with Betsy.”

I went to grab our 3/4 inch pull line from the back of Betsy.

“I’ll go secure this pull line to the rocket,” I told T-Bone.

“Roger, make sure it’s secured as high up as you can for leverage,” he instructed.

“Understood,” I responded.

One thing I remember about this incident was that I didn’t wait for T-Bone to tell me what to do. I took initiative. I was still trying to earn trust with him. I just went to Betsy and got the pull line. We both knew that what had to be done. A remote procedure was the safest way to deal with this item. We couldn’t “Blow it In Place” (BIP) though. In order to BIP an ordnance item you have to positively identify it first. During this phase of the war, the chemical weapons threat was very high. We didn’t know what Saddam had or where he had them related to weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

We all were in chemical protective equipment with our masks at the ready. If we were to BIP this ordnance item we could very well cause a chemical release. That would be a bad day. Pulling it remotely with a pull line would not disperse the chemical as rapidly or as far compared to blowing it up. The other reason why we couldn’t blow this item up was that the 5-ton Marine truck that was laying the fuel line was 20 meters from the item. They couldn’t retract the fuel line so the truck had to stay there. I secured the pull line to the rocket-assisted projectile, and T-Bone secured the other end to Betsy. The Marines all took cover behind the last vehicle in our convoy.

“Here goes nothing,” T-Bone said.

“ROOUUUUW, ROOOUUUW, ROOUUUUW,” Betsy cried as T-Bone gave her gas.

POW!!!! The pull line snapped!

“Holy shit!” T-Bone said.

“Bro, that thing didn’t even move,” I said to T-Bone.

“Yeah, that isn’t going anywhere.”

Fuck! I thought to myself. Now, we have to go hands-on. We had to dig that UXO out of the ground manually. This added at least an hour to the operation.

“Welp, I’ll start to dig this thing out,” I said to T-Bone.

What I thought was very cool about T-Bone is that he knew I was a new guy. He knew that I needed all the experience I could get. He never ball hogged the work. He let me do as much work as I wanted to do. He also never forced me to do something I was uncomfortable doing. He always told me what he was thinking. He was a true leader and I think about him often even to this day.

I couldn’t use a shovel, obviously. This had to be done very delicately. We didn’t know what the condition the fuze was in. Time to earn my pay again. I got my K-Bar knife out, took off my body armor and helmet for comfort, made my way to the item, and started to dig with my knife. The ground was hard. I started to think that whatever was in this ordnance item may have leaked out and made the ground hard. I couldn’t smell anything, and I wasn’t getting sick or feeling symptoms of a potential chemical munition.

As I got about half way down towards the end of this item I smelled cigarette smoke. I was super focused on digging delicately so I didn’t notice the shadow of a person standing behind me.

“Hey bro, how’s it going?” a Marine said while he stood right behind me. What the fuck!! I said to myself.

“Hey man!!! What the hell are you doing!!! Get back!! If this thing goes off, you’re dead!!! What are you thinking!!” I told him.

“Oh shit, ok.” the Marine responded and moved away quickly.

“Hey, T-Bone!!” I called out to him as I nodded towards the marine.

T-Bone put his hands in the air and started to chew him out for being stupid. The Marine was low rank and T-Bone was a Staff Sargent. I didn’t want to chew him out as I wasn’t a Marine and I didn’t have time. I just wanted him out of the kill zone of this ordnance. I continued on with slowly digging this thing up. I remember feeling like an archeologist, gently digging as to not disrupt or dig into the item. It was old. Rusted nearly to nothing. This ordnance was at least 10 years old. probably was here since the first gulf war in the early 90’s.

Man, I wonder how many kids that lived in this area played around this thing, I thought to myself.

I got down deep enough to where Betsy would be able to pull this up without the pull line snapping.

“OK brother, I think we are good. Hand me that pull line and we will try this again,” I told T-Bone.

I attached the working end to the ordnance item while T-Bone attached the running end to Betsy.

“ROOUUUUW, ROOOUUUW, ROOUUUUW,” Betsy cried as T-Bone gave her gas.

This time the ordnance came out. We kept pulling the item away from the pathway of the convoy. The marines immediately started forward again. They didn’t even ask if everything was good. That’s how crucial this mission was. The convoy wasn’t moving fast so T-Bone and I had time to get our shit together and clean up. We didn’t dispose of it. There was nothing left of this thing except the empty rocket motor for the most part.

To be continued…