Walking the line

Photo By Master Sgt. Opal Vaughn | Johnsonburg, Pa., native Sgt. Daniel Thorwart, a combat engineer patrolman with 73rd Engineers Company, 25th Brigade Troops Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, digs to extract any possible munitions, while in the Southern Legion Area of Operations, Iraq, Dec. 21.  

IRAQ

12.25.2008

Story by Spc. Opal Vaughn  

14th Public Affairs Detachment

By Spc. Opal Vaughn
14th Public Affairs Detachment

"Sergeant, line 'em up," yells Amarillo, Texas, native 2nd Lt. Mark Herrmann, platoon leader, 73rd Engineers Company, 25th Brigade Troops Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, as he draws an imaginary line with his finger in the air.

"Roger sir. Line it up guys," hollers Big Fork, Mich., native, Staff Sgt. Peter Johnson, a combat engineer squad leader with 73rd Eng. Co., 25th BTB, 1st SBCT, 25th Inf. Div. And just as quickly as the command is called, several engineer Soldiers form a line to sweep an open field of any possible improvised explosive devices in the Southern Legion Area of Operations during a route clearance mission, Dec. 21.

Slowly but surely the 73rd Engineers have been clearing the Southern Legion AO of IEDs and munitions threat in the area over the past months.

"The IED threat in our area is not that great, however, there is a lot of ordnance out and about and a lot of caches," Herrmann stated. "Usually we go out on patrol and clear the roads, but we are not limited to just that. We can and will do anything the brigade asks us to accomplish. In this case, we cleared an area in the Southern Legion AO and found some old munitions in the area so we went ahead and reduced the ordnance."

The task of route clearance can be repetitive at times but in good reason; it is a vital role in the military's mission toward cleaning up Iraq and a task the 73rd Eng. Co. is willing to take on.

"Recently, we've been conducting more and more searches in the area," Johnson stated while directing some Soldiers to dig in a spot where the Anps-12 Metal Detector his unit uses to find munitions, signaled as a possible threat. "One of our biggest jobs right now is to confirm or deny whether these caches exist. So the more we look, the better idea we can gauge on munitions in the area and deem them clear," added Johnson.

According to Johnson, making sure insurgents are aware of the coalition forces, IP and IA presence is the most important aspect to ridding Iraq of possible munitions and ordnance threats. "We are showing a presence," Johnson stated. "Our aggressive searches and clearing operations will deter any insurgents from going back to the areas we have cleared, from placing new munitions in the area."

The hard work of the 73rd Eng. Co. has been paying off. Even when a large cache is not found, every little bit helps.

"Apparently, this area use to be an old battle field position," said Fairmont, Minn., native Sgt. 1st Class Chris Wolter, a platoon sergeant with 73rd Eng. Co., 25th BTB, 1st SBCT, 25th Inf. Div. "So far we've found fuses and recoilless rifle tail extensions. It may not seem like much but with just these few items, an insurgent can utilize the parts and pieces from the used munitions to make IEDs. So if I'm not familiar with something we find out here, then I call up EOD to dispose of or collect up the ordnance we find. "

When EOD is not hand, the responsibility of disposing of munitions falls into the hands of the 73rd Eng. Co.

"Another Soldier on our team and I are on hand and qualified to destroy any munitions found," Wolter stated. "What determines destroying munitions is if it's any type of factory made munitions found, I am authorized to destroy it. But if the munitions are manmade IEDs, VBIEDs, HBIEDs, or if it's a large weapons cache find, then I will call up EOD to dispose of the ordnance," Wolter added.

Engineers in the military are well known for rebuilding communities and construction projects. But according to Herrmann, there is a lot more to an engineer than meets the eye.

"There are several types of engineer jobs," Herrmann said. "We are not construction engineers like some may think, we're combat engineers. Right now, we have one engineer company which supports the entire brigade. Our mission title or our job title is basically route clearance."

Even though the threat level is not as high, Herrmann keeps his Soldiers vigilant at all times. "I like to mix things up quite frequently as not to get complacent on patrols," Herrmann said. "Obviously, travelling the roads everyday is still very dangerous. IEDs are still a threat toward forces on the roads even though we haven't seen a high threat level in our AO. But we all know it's there."

Herrmann continued to explain, "When we're on the ground, when we're looking for these old caches, there have been a lot of defensive belts. This simply means the enemy is trying to protect their cache sites so they put up defensive IEDs; specifically in palm groves, they lace coke bottle IEDs with wire and target the single Soldier and attempt to wound them as much as possible," Herrmann stated.

"So when we find these caches we disable them," Herrmann added.

However long the road to purging Iraq of caches will take, Herrmann notes coalition and Iraqi forces are still making progress.

"A majority of the local nationals we come in contact with are pretty receptive to coalition force presence," Herrmann stated. "But a lot of the areas we have been going into have not seen any coalition force presence at all so the people are still kind of weary and take a stand-off approach when we come through."

Even with the little amount of coalition force contact, the local nations still continue to assist Iraqi and coalition forces in any way they can. Herrmann credits this to the increase in security in the local area.

"It's amazing to see the Iraqi police and Iraqi army presence in the area," Herrmann stated. "The reason there is no imminent IED threat in our AO is because there are IP check points now, almost every 100 yards apart. What the IP and IA are doing is great; they are changing the whole fight as far as being capable and ready to take control at any minute's notice."

• Date Taken: 12.25.2008
• Date Posted: 12.25.2008 14:48
• Story ID: 28138
• Location: IQ