Photo By Greg Mason | Soldiers with the 469th Combat Engineering Company (Infantry) and 402nd Combat...... read more read more
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Soldiers with the 469th Combat Engineering Company (Infantry) and 402nd Combat Engineering Company held a large detonation on Fort McCoy on Aug. 3 on the installation’s impact area on North Post.
Both engineer companies are with the Army Reserve and train regularly at Fort McCoy. Staff Sgt. Nathan Schulke said in an interview with Greg Mason of the Fort McCoy Multimedia-Visual Information Office right before the blast what they had planned to do.
“Today we’ll be firing off a MICLIC, or a Mine Clearing Line Charge,” Schulke said. “This is a breaching tool that the Army and the Marine Corps use to breach minefields.
“Basically, it’s going to be firing a rocket followed by a line of over 2,000 pounds of explosives, and that will clear a path through the minefield,” Schulke said. “It’s a pretty big deal because firing a live rocket and a live charge is rarely seen in a training environment.”
The pre-planned effort was completed in the pre-determined location just as expected. The resulting explosion could be heard not just on the installation but in areas outside the post’s borders as well.
According to a military fact sheet about the MICLIC at https://jpeoaa.army.mil/Portals/94/CCS/FactSheets/TSO/MICLIC%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf?ver=L0RsbJVbB1e7pOcdYrDRxQ%3d%3d, it states the “Mine Clearing Line Charge is a system of systems consisting of a rocket-propelled explosive line charge fired from a MK155 launcher mounted on a M200A1 trailer.
“The M58 linear demolition charge is propelled over the minefield by a MK 22 5-inch rocket motor and then detonated by command wire, clearing a vehicle wide lane 100 meters long,” the fact sheet states. “The M58 linear demolition charge is 350 feet long, consisting of three 100-foot sections and one 50- foot section which in total contain 700 C4 block charges.
“The MICLIC ammo components can also be fired from the M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle,” the fact sheet states.
The 469th was also highlighted doing explosive breach training at Fort McCoy in 2021. In a story by Cheryl Phillips with the 88th Readiness Division Public Affairs Office, the 469th’s Soldiers were breaching doors at Fort McCoy’s live-fire explosive breaching range.
“Unit first sergeant, Master Sgt. Bradley Schmoll, described the breaching capability as a ‘niche’ the engineers can employ in an urban locale,” the article states at https://www.usar.army.mil/News/News-Display/Article/2708549/469th-engineer-company-soldiers-explode-into-action. “The engineers spent the afternoon learning how to form a half dozen different types of charges at the live fire explosive breaching range. Each charge serves its own purpose and gives off a different type of explosion. … For normal urban breaching operations, there are usually about four to six people, including the combat engineers and the assault force, in a stack (the line of people), behind a Kevlar blast blanket. Once a door is breached, for example, the assault force can storm the building.
“Before setting off the charge, the Soldier with the detonator counts down from five,” the article states.
The 469th and 402nd Soldiers were at Fort McCoy for two weeks of annual training and this event was one of the main highlights of their training.
Learn more about the Army Reserve by visiting https://www.usar.army.mil.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be “The Total Force Training Center.”
The post supports Army Reserve, National Guard, active duty, and other service members from all services.
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.” See more at https://home.army.mil/imcom.
(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office. Greg Mason with the Fort McCoy Multimedia-Visual Information Office contributed to this article.)
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2025 15:58 |
| Story ID: | 545059 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 269 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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