By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
LSA ANACONDA, Iraq — Route Heather is a pot-holed mess, pulverized back to sand in places by tanks and truck traffic amid sunflower and tomato fields.
It's also the route to the north and west of the big U.S. logistical support area where Sgt. Deyson Cariaga was killed by a roadside bomb Friday.
His death is the first from the state for the 29th Brigade Combat Team of the Hawai'i National Guard and Army Reserve.
Those who drive Route Heather — often the soldiers of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry — call it "IED Alley," using the acronym for improvised explosive device.
About a mile outside the air base is the spot where a Nissan Pathfinder exploded as Staff Sgt. Ignacio Palacios passed it on April 19.
"We can't forget that — that's our anniversary. I told the other sergeant, 'That's the date to remember,' " Palacios said while waiting to drive the route again.
Palacios, 45, who's from Saipan and has been in the 100th Battalion for 22 years, was in the third Humvee to drive by the unattended gray vehicle with its hood up.
"I was looking at the vehicle. I knew something was wrong. He just blew up right there," Palacios said.
"Everything happened so fast. The shrapnel hit the windshield and cracked it."
Luckily, the bomber, using remote detonation, blew up the Pathfinder about 15 feet in front of the armored Humvee, which has bulletproof glass, and the vehicle was able to drive through the explosion.
There are other locations on Route Heather, and adjoining Route Hobbs, where 100th Battalion soldiers point out craters from roadside bombs. Many bombs are found and defused. A few, like the one that hit Cariaga's convoy, find their target.
The bombs are an indication of the ongoing insurgency in this mostly Sunni Arab region about 50 miles north of Baghdad. The attacks spike and drop off over the months.
Route Heather's ruts require U.S. convoys, usually with four or more vehicles, to slow down and sometimes skirt the shoulder of the road.
Roadside bomb technology, meanwhile, is getting more advanced, with militants rolling cords across the road that make an electrical connection as a Humvee passes, triggering an explosion.
An IED was found on Route Heather a couple of weeks before the explosion that killed Cariaga.
"You just never know when you are going to get hit," said Sgt. Ionatana Ala, 37, from Mililani, a 100th Battalion soldier who is a UPS truck driver. "You can't be too focused on whether you're going to hit an IED. You just gotta keep truckin'. Do your job."
