Troops to face Afghanistan's hidden dangers
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
With the rattle of machine guns in the background and explosives blasting nearby, some 360 soldiers bound for Afghanistan in the next few weeks went through individual readiness training in a wooded range at Schofield Barracks yesterday.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Those involved in learning survivability techniques or how to detect unexploded ordnance were from the 65th Engineer Battalion, which is part of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division (Light).
Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team and the 65th Engineer Battalion build a bunker for their survivability training at Schofield Barracks. About 360 soldiers will be heading to Afghanistan in a few weeks.
The gravity of the instruction was lost on neither trainees nor trainers. Many of the latter were veterans of previous Middle East missions.
"I'm more nervous about going to Afghanistan than I was with Desert Storm or Kosovo," said Staff Sgt. Adam Hurlocker, 35. "I'm more scared now because I'm a platoon sergeant and I have 27 soldiers to look out for — not just one."
Paying close attention and presenting information clearly could mean the difference between life or death, and everyone on the range seemed to know it.
"Step No. 1 — look for any signs of trip wires," barked level three mine training leader Sgt. Sean Tyree, as he meticulously walked about 50 soldiers through the business of detecting land mines. "Do not skip step No. 1!"
Trainees were taught the "forearm," "knuckle" and "pool stick" methods of delicately unearthing land mines, as well as how to use trip-wire feelers and the "two-finger sweep" — a 4- to 6-inch swipe that allows a soldier to glimpse the forward edge of the mine.
Probing for a mine at more than a 30-degree angle can set it off, they were told.
"It's inch by inch," said Sgt. Dennis Scott, a level two mine instructor who watched from the sidelines. "It can take years to clear a minefield."
Scott said it took a year and a half to clear a five-acre minefield when when he served in Bosnia. There are 10 million mines in Afghanistan, he added.
Also of concern in Afghanistan and Iraq, explained Hurlocker, is the IED, or improvised explosive device.
Dressed in Middle Eastern garb, role player Sgt. Robert Vial, who served in Iraq last year, pointed out all sorts of booby-trapped devices along the trail — from grenades inside soda bottles to explosives inside sticks of wood.
An IED can be made of materials found at a local hardware store and can be hidden in anything from a soda can to a pile of rocks, he said.
How can you check everything?
"You can't," said Hurlocker. "What we're trying to make people aware of is that we're extremely vulnerable. We just have to be very cognizant of our surroundings, and observant of what's going on around us at all times."
"And hope for a little bit of luck, to be honest."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
