14 August 2009

There are some troops with really big ones....EOD.

From the Soldier side: I just came across a blog that I put on my list. If you want to see and read about somebody how has really big balls, check out http://ward57.blogspot.com/

I was a Combat Engineer many years ago. We built stuff and blew things up. We got to work with explosives from time to time. I loved it. It was too scary for some. I recall in my Engineer course, on the day we were actually going to go blow holes in the ground....most of the students were a little shy. Our first charge was only 2 pounds.....prep the charge, cut the time fuse, put the cap in the charge, tape it up, pull the igniter...walk away. Boom!

After the first blast, about half the students developed a great respect for explosives. When we went to set the next several charges in the hole, fewer and fewer students walked down range with us. By the time we set the last charge of the day, there was one other student, the instructor and me. Everyone else seemed to be a little shy. It is not at all like TV and the movies. You don't have time to run. Det cord "burns" at 27,000 feet per second. Most explosives "burn" around that speed...it's not really burning, it's exploding...can you run that fast? An M-16 bullet goes a little over 3,000 feet per second.

Now...keeping that in mind...think of an Airmen, Soldier, Sailor or Marine dealing with a bomb or mine that some other asshole has put out in the field. Now, you have to go make it safe. I learned 20 ways to booby trap a mine...so bad I couldn't even disarm it if I had to.

Write this down. Anybody who works in EOD for a living has the biggest balls in the world. You will have a hard time finding anybody with more guts.

5 comments:

LL said...

Many years ago I did underwater EOD (beach clearance stuff) but all that I did was training - there were no beach obstacles that needed to be blown for combat ops in my generation.

There is major pucker factor laying out a demo train under water but it's nothing compared to what the Army and Marine guys do in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CI-Roller Dude said...

But when you add "under water" there are sharks...
when you have sharks, then we become part of the food chain.
I'll stick to the dirt.

Anonymous said...

RD, you really are bullet-proof, aren't you?

Anonymous said...

Maybe a video of what you described should be required Youtube viewing for all boys...
Sounds like a good dose of healthy respect.

I bet you did lots of 'experiements' as a boy, didn't you?

Coffeypot said...

Dude, I read her whole blog thing a week or so ago and this guy has guts, too. Not much on the abs side, but he is tough.

She is too.