AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
accompanied by the gnashing of teeth, wearing of sack cloth, ashes on the head and tearing of hair (if I had any)!!!!! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
OK folks, sorry it took me so long to see this one, I've been laying a new laminate floor in the house.
We tell them, and we tell them, every time I teach Booby Traps, "don't use silly string! It may very well initiate your device, and you're standing right on top of it!!! "
This has been one of those things that has hung around for years, I know these folks mean well, but a lot of money has now been spent by a lot of great Americans, just trying to help out, and for nothing but an old wives tale.
Background: A tripwire you can see easily probably belongs to a production anti-personnel mine, it will usually take at least 16 oz of tension to remove the safing pin from the fuze. A tripwire you cannot see is probably homemade / attached to an IED. These are commonly fine copper or steel wire, monofilament line, or occasionally, scrounged multi-conductor wire from a wire guided missile. These are definitely VERY difficult to see, and can and have required MUCH LESS tension/pressure to initiate the device in question.
The next point comes in to play with the proverb, "once you have the tiger by the tail, what do you do with it"?
If it's a production mine, it's handled by whatever engineers are handy, we in EOD can handle them just as easily, but we normally do not handle tactical breaches unless we are working with SOF. If it's an improvised device, we are the only ones that should be dealing with it, as you need to have a complete understanding of the device PRIOR to messing with it.
I have seen some pretty messed up and devious bad guys out there, and they are leaving some nasty toys laying around. We have lost too many folks for no reason other than they didn't want to wait ten minutes for me to get from one place to another, that is no reason at all when you are telling a disraught mother why her 19 year old son will be coming home in a 1 gallon ziploc bag!
I'm sorry everyone, but there are too many people out there that have seen "Speed" or "Blown Away" and think they can do this stuff. I've been up to my eyeballs in it for 18 years now, and feel I am just now scratching the surface. One thing separates me from the poor lads I've bagged up in Baghdad, an-Nasiriyah, Fallujah, Kirkuk, and a dozen other lousy places that have no name, I'm still alive, and I get to deal with it another day. Sorry to bare my soul, and show some frustration.
The problem is that these guys do not realize that all is not as it seems, and you are chasing after some real pro's, trained in Sudan, Iran, Gaza, and the Bekaa. These guys are good, and unless you show some respect to the pro's work, he'll kill you quick. If you happen to stumble into an "Amature Night Show" and survive, well good for you. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
The problem, a taut tripwire may be just that, or it may be attached to a "tension release" trigger, cut it, and "poof"!
A slack metal tripwire may be just that, or it may have a very small current passing through it holding a collapsing circuit open.
Tripwires have also been used to lure a stack of GI's into a device using either active, or passive infrared motion detection sensor technology, or other more insidious traps, this is definitely NOT the Vietnam War.
<img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />
OK guys, I've soapboxed enough for this thing.
One thing I must say, Thank You All for your support and care from ALL of us in the Military. You may not know it, but it helps a whole lot. The job we are doing is necessary and just, even if we dont get the support we need inside the beltway, we always know we will get it from the rest of America and we love you all for it.
I can say with all certainty, that that would not be true if it weren't for you fine men and women who went before us in Vietnam, you guys got the shaft, but you sure made sure that we didn't, and we can never say thank you enough, but you have our eternal love.
For those of you who wish to, the flaming lamp is now lit! Fire away Ridley! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Mike
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