bobdina
11-08-2009, 03:07 PM
Glasgow To Helmand - IED Disposal Gets Harder
Sunday, November 08, 2009
In Afghanistan, teams of British disposal experts rely on both skill and luck to neutralise hundreds of improvised explosive devices every month
When Staff Sergeant Stevie Jack kneels in the dust of Helmand province beside a Taliban bomb, he wonders whether this could be the day when two detonator wires get blown together by an Afghan breeze.
Jack has defused more than 70 devices this year. On at least 30 missions the British bomb disposal expert has neutralised the threat while being shot at by the Taliban. "When you're down at the device, you're really just concentrating on making sure every single aspect of what you are doing is safe," he said.
The 35-year-old, an ammunition technician with the Royal Logistic Corps, is among the specialists tasked with disabling the thousands of booby traps, roadside bombs and hidden improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that litter Helmand province.
Their ubiquity and elaborate placement means IEDs are by far the biggest killer of British troops in southern Afghanistan: more than 60 UK personnel have died in Helmand from such devices so far this year. But Jack and his colleagues have saved hundreds of British lives, say senior officers.
Jack, from Inverkeithing in Fife, is lothe to admit it, but his is among the most dangerous jobs on this frontline. Only last week, a colleague died: Staff Sergeant Olaf "Oz" Schmid, 30, was killed trying to defuse a bomb in the town of Sangin. Captain Daniel Shepherd, 28, was killed three months before, while attempting to neutralise a roadside bomb in Nad-e-Ali.
Bomb disposal experts are a tight-knit breed, and both men were Jack's close friends. He said: "Their deaths didn't remind us of the risks. We are just absolutely devastated that we lost two individuals who were so good. It's a hard thing to bear because it could have been any one of us."
Before his arrival in Helmand last April, Jack had already tested his composure and ability to deactivate a lethal device during one of the most high-profile terrorist attacks on Britain. He made safe the terrorist bombs at Glasgow airport two years ago, defusing the explosives and gas canisters crammed inside a burning Jeep outside the terminal.
On his first afternoon in Helmand, his aptitude for the pressures of the job was immediately under scrutiny – he dealt with three bombs on his first day, and the pace of operations has rarely eased. Often he is summoned to deal with a report of one bomb, only to find an entire area riddled with concealed booby traps, laid in complex patterns to inflict as many casualties on British troops as possible.
"One device can easily turn into five or 10," he said. "When you went out to deal with a device there was always the risk of finding another on the way; 80% of the time we were called out, we'd always find more in the same area."
One of the greatest fears among Jack and his team of 12 is the crudeness of the Taliban's hastily built IEDs, which they describe as "a bit Heath Robinson".
"One of the things with the Taliban IEDs is how badly they are made. It can be that the wires are just hanging in the wind, and if the wind blows the other way it could be fatal."
Major Colin Whitworth – responsible for training all IED teams in Helmand to a level acknowledged as the best in the world – believes the most basic devices can present the greatest threat.
The ammunition technical officer, who lost an arm when a car bomb detonated in Northern Ireland in 1993, said: "Most operators fear that these devices are knocked up in such a quick and nasty way that they could be doing the correct safe procedure, but the device is so badly made that a loose wire touches another wire – and that scares them. That is the big concern for all of us. You can be the best trained operator, and your luck may just run out. The more things you do by hand, and the more devices you deal with, your luck gets shorter and shorter and shorter."
Whitworth, 42, is also charged with ensuring his men do not crack under the cumulative stress of the job. Recruits are picked with care, with a combination of intelligence, technical prowess and the ability to stay calm under severe stress the most important factors in selection.
"We are looking for quick-thinking people who can handle pressure, and can think outside the box," Whitworth said.
Whitworth is also aware that the Taliban's bomb-making tactics constantly evolve as British forces succeed in defusing devices. "They watch our techniques and procedures when we counter something; they will then counter our counter. It's cat and mouse," he said.
If that was not enough, said Jack, in many cases the Taliban have tried to shoot him as he defuses bombs in the middle of firefights that can last hours.
In the Green Zone – the lush vegetative strip on the banks of the Helmand river – enemy gunmen once sneaked within 10 metres of Jack while his infantry escort battled to protect him.
He praises the 2nd Battalion The Rifles for offering "absolutely phenomenal" protection in Sangin, a town encircled with 1,000 IEDs over the summer.
But he said readjusting from the stress of the tour of duty was difficult when he was home on leave last month, with his wife Kelly and 12-year-old daughter. "You have to come down from such a high and intense level that you have been working at, and then come back home and just sit in the house and try to lead a normal life," he said.
Colonel Chris Claydon, assistant head of force protection at the Ministry of Defence, said that British forces were facing an IED threat on an "unprecedented" scale. Between April and August of this year, 1,800 incidents were recorded, he said, with each typically involving up to 20 IEDs.
Claydon said most bombs are "victim-operated", explaining that they are laid like mines, and made with locally sourced components and explosives extracted from fertiliser – which is all too easily available in the largely agricultural province of Helmand.
http://www.modoracle.com/news/Glasgow-To-Helmand---IED-Disposal-Gets-Harder_19217.html
Sunday, November 08, 2009
In Afghanistan, teams of British disposal experts rely on both skill and luck to neutralise hundreds of improvised explosive devices every month
When Staff Sergeant Stevie Jack kneels in the dust of Helmand province beside a Taliban bomb, he wonders whether this could be the day when two detonator wires get blown together by an Afghan breeze.
Jack has defused more than 70 devices this year. On at least 30 missions the British bomb disposal expert has neutralised the threat while being shot at by the Taliban. "When you're down at the device, you're really just concentrating on making sure every single aspect of what you are doing is safe," he said.
The 35-year-old, an ammunition technician with the Royal Logistic Corps, is among the specialists tasked with disabling the thousands of booby traps, roadside bombs and hidden improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that litter Helmand province.
Their ubiquity and elaborate placement means IEDs are by far the biggest killer of British troops in southern Afghanistan: more than 60 UK personnel have died in Helmand from such devices so far this year. But Jack and his colleagues have saved hundreds of British lives, say senior officers.
Jack, from Inverkeithing in Fife, is lothe to admit it, but his is among the most dangerous jobs on this frontline. Only last week, a colleague died: Staff Sergeant Olaf "Oz" Schmid, 30, was killed trying to defuse a bomb in the town of Sangin. Captain Daniel Shepherd, 28, was killed three months before, while attempting to neutralise a roadside bomb in Nad-e-Ali.
Bomb disposal experts are a tight-knit breed, and both men were Jack's close friends. He said: "Their deaths didn't remind us of the risks. We are just absolutely devastated that we lost two individuals who were so good. It's a hard thing to bear because it could have been any one of us."
Before his arrival in Helmand last April, Jack had already tested his composure and ability to deactivate a lethal device during one of the most high-profile terrorist attacks on Britain. He made safe the terrorist bombs at Glasgow airport two years ago, defusing the explosives and gas canisters crammed inside a burning Jeep outside the terminal.
On his first afternoon in Helmand, his aptitude for the pressures of the job was immediately under scrutiny – he dealt with three bombs on his first day, and the pace of operations has rarely eased. Often he is summoned to deal with a report of one bomb, only to find an entire area riddled with concealed booby traps, laid in complex patterns to inflict as many casualties on British troops as possible.
"One device can easily turn into five or 10," he said. "When you went out to deal with a device there was always the risk of finding another on the way; 80% of the time we were called out, we'd always find more in the same area."
One of the greatest fears among Jack and his team of 12 is the crudeness of the Taliban's hastily built IEDs, which they describe as "a bit Heath Robinson".
"One of the things with the Taliban IEDs is how badly they are made. It can be that the wires are just hanging in the wind, and if the wind blows the other way it could be fatal."
Major Colin Whitworth – responsible for training all IED teams in Helmand to a level acknowledged as the best in the world – believes the most basic devices can present the greatest threat.
The ammunition technical officer, who lost an arm when a car bomb detonated in Northern Ireland in 1993, said: "Most operators fear that these devices are knocked up in such a quick and nasty way that they could be doing the correct safe procedure, but the device is so badly made that a loose wire touches another wire – and that scares them. That is the big concern for all of us. You can be the best trained operator, and your luck may just run out. The more things you do by hand, and the more devices you deal with, your luck gets shorter and shorter and shorter."
Whitworth, 42, is also charged with ensuring his men do not crack under the cumulative stress of the job. Recruits are picked with care, with a combination of intelligence, technical prowess and the ability to stay calm under severe stress the most important factors in selection.
"We are looking for quick-thinking people who can handle pressure, and can think outside the box," Whitworth said.
Whitworth is also aware that the Taliban's bomb-making tactics constantly evolve as British forces succeed in defusing devices. "They watch our techniques and procedures when we counter something; they will then counter our counter. It's cat and mouse," he said.
If that was not enough, said Jack, in many cases the Taliban have tried to shoot him as he defuses bombs in the middle of firefights that can last hours.
In the Green Zone – the lush vegetative strip on the banks of the Helmand river – enemy gunmen once sneaked within 10 metres of Jack while his infantry escort battled to protect him.
He praises the 2nd Battalion The Rifles for offering "absolutely phenomenal" protection in Sangin, a town encircled with 1,000 IEDs over the summer.
But he said readjusting from the stress of the tour of duty was difficult when he was home on leave last month, with his wife Kelly and 12-year-old daughter. "You have to come down from such a high and intense level that you have been working at, and then come back home and just sit in the house and try to lead a normal life," he said.
Colonel Chris Claydon, assistant head of force protection at the Ministry of Defence, said that British forces were facing an IED threat on an "unprecedented" scale. Between April and August of this year, 1,800 incidents were recorded, he said, with each typically involving up to 20 IEDs.
Claydon said most bombs are "victim-operated", explaining that they are laid like mines, and made with locally sourced components and explosives extracted from fertiliser – which is all too easily available in the largely agricultural province of Helmand.
http://www.modoracle.com/news/Glasgow-To-Helmand---IED-Disposal-Gets-Harder_19217.html