Engineers Keep their Eyes on the Road to have 'Eyes On' IEDs/ IED Survivors Drive on to Keep Convoys Safe

BAYJI, IRAQ

06.14.2005

Courtesy Story

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By Staff Sgt. Raymond Drumsta
42nd Infantry Division Public Affairs

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SUMMERALL, IRAQ -- In a conflict where highways are the frontlines, U.S. Army engineers here are on point daily, finding -- and surviving - improvised explosive devices.

Using their eyes, intuition, training and experience, soldiers of Company C, 103rd Engineer Battalion comb area roads looking for IEDs before they can be detonated in attacks against Coalition Forces, contractors, Iraqi citizens and Iraqi security forces. It's called a route-clearing operation, and the soldiers have found 25 IEDs and survived six IED attacks since they took over the mission in January,

"We go out and look for IEDs and check anything that looks suspicious, to keep the routes open," said unit member Sgt. Peter Moore, who is from Los Angeles. "Our goal is to keep the routes open so the convoys can get through safely."

For the soldiers, that means driving the baking-hot roads of the Iraqi countryside in the cramped quarters of Hummvees, looking for the least sign that might indicate the presence of an IED, and clearing the roads of debris that could be used to hide IEDs -- a job unit member Staff Sgt. Christopher Blomquist, of Twin Peaks, Calif., described as "attention to detail."

"We have three or four sets of eyes in each vehicle scanning the sides of the road looking for anything that's unusual...anything big enough to hide something," he said. "We stop, we look at it and try to clear it off the road."

Anything as innocuous as a tire, a dead animal, a can, or an MRE box can be used to hide an IED, said Blomquist.

"We're just very observant," said Blomquist. "Where most people are traveling down the road going 50, 60 miles per hour, we travel 20, 25 . We go slow, we take our time."

Teamwork is also key, Blomquist said.

"We go out, we work together, and we rely on each other. If one person misses something, someone else is there to catch it, hopefully," he said.

When the soldiers find an IED, they alert explosive-ordnance personnel to dispose of it safely.

The job can be really boring, making it hard to stay awake Blomquist said -- until something happens, which is "pretty scary."

Sometimes that 'something" is an IED attack. Company C counts the six IED attacks among the 25 IEDs found.

Blomquist and unit member Spc. Wayne Mullings, of Philadelphia, are two of the unit's IED survivors. They were dismounted, checking a bridge when Blomquist saw an IED, which he described as "a 122 round with wires coming out of it that was stuck in a washout."

"I walked up to and saw it. It was partially obscured by tumbleweed," he said.

Blomquist shouted to Mullings to run, and then turned away himself, just as the IED exploded - barely ten feet from them. Blomquist suffered only minor injuries, and he said the attack, while frightening, doesn't stop him from going out on route-clearing operations, Blomquist said.

"It's my job -- it's what I do," he said.

Other unit IED survivors include Sgt. 1st Class David Broderick, Pvt. 1st Class Giovanni Andres Cubano, Spc. Waldo Rodriguez, and 1st Lt. Daniel Abraminko. They were returning from a route-clearing operation recently when an IED exploded right next to their Hummvee. Broderick, who is from Pittsburgh, said they were almost back to the base here when there was a "huge boom and dust everywhere."

The explosion knocked out the vehicle's steering and brakes. Some pieces of shrapnel penetrated the crew compartment and the fire extinguisher, causing its contents to spray out all over the interior of the vehicle.

As the vehicle coasted to a stop off the road, their training kicked in, said Broderick, and they began to check each other for injuries, radio their status to the rest of the platoon, and scan for what are known as 'secondaries" -- follow-up IED attacks designed to kill soldiers aiding those wounded in the initial attack.

The rest of the platoon meanwhile began their battle drills - setting up traffic control points and scanning for the insurgents who set off the IED, said Abraminko, who is from Philadelphia.

"The other guys in the platoon did the right thing," Abraminko said. "They looked for secondary IEDs and then came to help us." Their M114 up-armored Hummvee saved their lives, said Abraminko, along with their body armor, ballistic glasses and earplugs.

"I want to write the company who made our Hummvee a thank-you note," he said.

The four soldiers returned to duty a few days after the attack. Cubano, the gunner, was philosophic about it.

"I suspected something like this would happen," he said. "I knew the risks going out. It was just a matter of time. I'll still get back in that gunner's hatch. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

Cubano, who is from Philadelphia, suffered shrapnel wound in the head and slight concussion from the attack. He said his first thought when the IED exploded was "Lord, save me!"

"My next reaction was to get down into the hatch," he said. "That most likely saved my life."

"Surprisingly, I was calm," said Rodriguez, the driver, who is from Philadelphia. "I made sure my crew was alright, then moved on. There was a big sigh of relief."

The moments following the attack felt surreal and time seemed to time slow down, said Broderick. They knew what to do, he said, because of their pre-deployment training, advice from the 9th Engineers, 1st Infantry Division, and experience -- culled from their own action-reviews of attacks on the unit.

"Many of our procedures are things we learned and refined ourselves," he said.

One of those procedures is to rotate soldiers during the mission.

"The heat plays a big part because it tires everyone out faster," said Rodriguez. "We switch jobs to make sure everyone stays awake."

The soldiers know the roads, said Broderick, and are alert for changes, or, as he put it, 'something is not right," - like coming home and seeing furniture out of place. While seeing the same the roads everyday helps in the hunt for IEDs, he said, complacency is a danger.

"We consider this our sector and our roads," he said. "If something bad happens, we feel we've let someone down."

Staying on edge, motivation, and not being complacent are central to safety and the success of the missions, said Moore. He said finding an IED boosts their motivation, and getting attacked with one boosts it even higher -- inspiring anger in the soldiers to find more IEDs.

"You're looking that much harder for the next one," Moore said. "It's exciting when you come across something that [insurgents] have placed out there, because you have a feeling of accomplishment that you caught it before it had chance to go off on a convoy."

He goes out on missions hoping to find IEDs, Moore said.

"Everyday I hope to find as much as possible," he said. "Anything that I can find keeps someone safe."

Others defined success differently.

"It's a successful day whenever we come back safe," Rodriguez said.

"A successful day is when we don't find any, and none go off," Cubano said. "That's a good sign that there's no insurgent activity and that it's calming down."

The ultimate success of Operation Iraqi Freedom is what Broderick is focused on, and he considers interaction with the Iraqi people the greatest challenge of the job. They can't tell insurgents from ordinary Iraqis, Broderick said - so they have to treat all Iraqis the same way, making it hard for the soldiers to show that they're here to help.

"That's what I came here for," Broderick said, 'to help these people, and give them their country back."

• Date Taken: 06.14.2005
• Date Posted: 06.14.2005 06:59
• Story ID: 2141
• Location: BAYJI, IQ