To see the SEAL point of view of this deployment, check out the book, Service, A Navy SEAL at War. You’ll find me in there from chapter 5 thru 10. My picture is in there as well.
This next part has some language to it. But I wanted to keep things authentic.
Continued from Part 2…
We had all linked up before the long patrol. We had the whole task unit: my OIC, the SEAL task unit commander, four EOD guys, 30+ SEALs, and approximately 12 to 15 Iraqi soldiers and a few translators. We were a big group, a huge patrol for SEALs. We were in a dual column formation. I was on the left side of the road and Shane Snow (another EOD guy) was on the right side of the road. We patrolled right next to the point men. We searched and watched the ground and surrounding areas for IEDs. The SEALs were focused on the shooter threat. 90/10, 10/90. For the SEAL point men, ninety percent of their focus and awareness was towards shooting threats, and ten percent was looking at where they were walking, so as not to encounter an IED. As for us EOD Technicians, we were ninety percent looking on the ground and surrounding areas for the IED threat, and ten percent looking at the shooting threat. It was a perfect balance to mitigate both threats at the same time.
Towards the end of the patrol, at around 0330 or 0345 in the morning, we all ended up on a single road. We were maybe a quarter mile from the FOB we were patrolling towards. The road was raised up about five or six feet, maybe more, from the surrounding farm patches. It was wet, muddy, and to patrol in the farm patches was like trying to walk through quicksand. We had to stick to the road. First thing I noticed were huge potholes in the road. All from previous IEDs.
Are you fucking kidding me?! I thought to myself.
The frustrating part was we had got good at utilizing our night vision to search and find IEDs at night. The worst time to use them is at dawn. The light that is starting to break over the horizon makes it difficult to see details as well. It was like, do I wear them? Do I not? I had limited visibility with them, and without them I felt extremely vulnerable.
Night vision was hard to get used to. We trained a lot with them during our EOD training cycle. Once you got used to them it made things purer in my opinion. What do I mean by this? For me with night vision, my brain didn’t favor color, depth, or contrast. Nothing stood out to distract me. Everything for me was neutral. It gave me the ability to choose my search criteria, areas, and process purely, according to the enemy IED trends.
I heard Paul over the radio as if he were reading our minds, “Leave your NODS on,” he said. Thank God Paul had lots of experience as a prior enlisted guy before he became an officer, and he spoke up at the perfect time.
Honestly, I was already on high alert. My hairs were standing up on the back of my neck. I started to see an object on the opposite side of the road. It was a dark looking square object that was not concealed very effectively. I noticed Shane inspecting the object. Once I got three to four feet from the object I realized, “Holy shit, that’s an IED.” I only saw that one initially. At the same time, my point man on my side of the road was looking down at his feet. My heart stopped beating. My point man confidently stepped over a similar object he saw. It was a little better concealed than the other one from my angles and point of view. I rushed over to see what he stepped over.
Fuck!! Another one!! I thought to myself.
I had a sense of both pride and horror seeing my point man just confidently step over a twelve-pound IED. But I had trained them well to recognize IEDs. What we had were two IEDs; they were positioned perfectly in the road for any HUMVEE to run over. They each had approximately ten to twelve pounds of explosives. They were partially buried and had a pressure plate switch on top of the IED. A pressure plate is simply two pieces of metal separated by non-conductive materials, normally wood or foam of some sort. When you step on it, it forces the two metal pieces to contact each other, completing an electrical circuit. These particular ones were hack saw blades.
My body became numb; I felt clarity and focus rush into my mind. I looked in the distance and saw the FOB.
Ok, it’s right there, I thought.
The FOB was approximately 700 meters or so away. At this point I used the basic IED mitigation process that I developed. It’s a process to ensure I’m performing the safest mitigation procedure possible for the situation at hand:
Analyze threat assessment, circumvent (go around), remote procedures, and hands-on procedures. Analyze, assess, circumvent, remote, and hands-on. I taught this to thousands of EOD technicians since then, and still teach this.
Suddenly I felt like the brightest beam of light was exposing me to every triggerman and bombmaker on the planet to see!!! I felt like time stopped, my body went numb, and my thoughts became pure. From the analytical research I did before every mission, I knew the victim-operated pressure plate IED was common for Iraq. It was what we call a speed bump IED. Shane was doing his thing on his IED, and I started doing mine. It seemed like I was standing there doing nothing for ten minutes, but it was only a second or less. I went to work and performed a threat assessment: it was a victim-operated IED. Was there a secondary switch? Command wire or a radio antenna?? Nothing. I saw the blasting cap or detonator—it was tight and appeared glued into the main charge.
Fuck that, no way I am touching that blasting cap, looks suspicious as hell, I thought. Can I circumvent the patrol?
No, I couldn’t. The road we were on was raised up. It was right in the middle of farmland. It was winter and the rain had softened the ground and it was like quicksand. It would have taken a very long time to patrol through extremely thick and deep mud. It would also affect our mobility if we were to take contact from the enemy during that time. We would have got our asses handed to us. Analyze, assess, circumvent… now it’s remote.
Can I perform a remote procedure? I thought to myself. Yes!
I couldn’t do a remote mechanical process. This is a process where you use rope, block, and tackle to pull the IED from an unsafe area to a safe area remotely (from a safe distance where, if the IED detonates, you won’t be harmed). This would have taken too much time. But I could do a remote explosive procedure. This is a process where you use explosive materials like C-4 to either disrupt or destroy the IED.
I completed my threat assessment process. I searched in a spiral from the IED outward. We did this to make sure there was no command wire or personal mobile radio antenna in the vicinity that could be either attached to the IED or to a secondary IED. Nothing. I looked for secondaries again. Nothing. (Secondaries are IEDs that are hidden close to the initial IED). I look for any person that is out around the farmhouses in the distance. No one I could see.
Next option, BIP, or Blow In Place. I looked at where the guys were; everyone else was behind us taking up security positions. Shane and I were on the same page. We both knew that the remote explosive process was the only safe and effective mitigation process. At that point Shane tells me,
“Bro, I used up all my bang (explosives) on the boxes of rifle grenades at the last objective. You have any extra bang?” Without hesitation I grabbed one of my standard charges and tossed it to him. He caught it flawlessly. (NEVER throw items around a victim-operated IED, by the way! I instantly felt stupid but did not have time to think about it.)
My OIC Paul Craig came up behind us from about twenty meters.
“What you got, Andy?” he asked.
“Two pounds, sir!” I answered.
“In it or on it?” he responded.
He was trying to get a net explosive weight so that he and the other EOD guys could make sure the SEALs were at a safe distance. In my distracted mind, I had told him how much explosive I was using to counter-charge the IED, but he wanted the whole net explosive weight.
“Twenty-four pounds, sir!” I responded.
Paul left us to work and made sure the SEALs were in safe areas before we counter charged the IEDs. We use very specific formulas to calculate the distance that is needed to ensure we are far enough away from the detonation to remain safe. Counter charging an IED is the most preferred and safest remote method of IED disruption.
At that point I deployed my charge, close to but not touching the IED. I looked over at Shane; he was ready. I did not need to say a word; I could tell he was ready just by looking at him. I communicated to Paul via hand and arm signals that we were ready. We never use our radios while standing over an IED, just in case the IED has a remote-controlled trigger such as a personal mobile radio or long-range cordless telephone. Paul signaled he was ready. Shane and I pulled the M60 igniters at the same time. An M60 igniter is a mechanism that initiates time fuze. Time fuze is a non-electric firing system that is used to initiate explosive charges at a predetermined time. We used two-minute time fuze lengths. Paul knew we pulled smoke as the two-point men, Shane, and I, high tailed it to a nearby dirt berm. Two minutes was a lifetime to go over contingency plans. I started to think of worse case scenarios:
Fuck, will one charge kick the other off?
Shit, are we and the SEALs all far enough away?
Are we being watched?
Am I sitting on a secondary IED now?
I looked around my immediate area again for the umpteenth time. Focused, breathing, numb, waiting…. Seemed like a lifetime before BOOM!!! A twelve-pound charge went off! Then less than two seconds later, BOOM!!!! The other twelve pounder went off. Both charges felt and sounded like ten to twelve pounds. We knew the difference between a pound and ten to twelve-pound detonations. We all, including the SEALs, knew this familiar feeling.
I was greatly confident but with this job, you never knew when Murphy’s Law would step in (“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”). EOD guys absolutely hate Murphy’s Law. I mean, who is Murphy anyways?? We waited for primary and secondary fragmentation to settle.
Ping, ping, ping…. ping... ping… ping…
I can hear pieces of fragmentation hitting the ground. Shane and I move towards the blast seats. Job’s not over yet!!! We looked for secondaries again; we made sure all the explosives were consumed. Without talking, Shane and I looked at each other and knew everything looked as good as it could. We both wanted to get all the guys out of this area as fast as possible.
“Let’s go, we are good to go,” I whispered to the point man.
We made our way to the FOB. All in all, it took us approximately six minutes of work with two minutes of time fuze wait time. Eight minutes, not too bad. When we arrived at the forward operating base or FOB, I remember to this day Morgan Luttrell gave me a huge hug! Picked me up off the ground! I weighed 230 pounds without my gear. (I was massive at the time) It was very impressive. That was one of the few times that the SEALs had seen their EOD guys at work. Brad had been the first to encounter an IED on mission. But this time they saw their EOD guys do our jobs. They were proud as hell, and I was too of my EOD teammates that night. To be honest, deep down I was happy. However, one must critique oneself to ensure not too many mistakes were made. Everyone makes mistakes, but reflection so as to not repeat them is key to the next mission’s success. That’s the difference between being lucky or being professional. EOD guys do not like to feel lucky. We are always evaluating our actions.
What else could have been done?
Was there a safer way?
Did I make the right decisions?
Did I catch everything on scene?
Did I evaluate the trends effectively?
What were my EOD teammates thinking of my actions and decisions?
That last question was the big one for me. That was what made me grow the most as an EOD technician. It was what always kept me in line with my procedures and how I led and mentored other EOD technicians. I always, always thought: what would my community think of my actions?? If you’re not always evaluating your actions and decisions, then you’re a complete idiot, to be blunt. Especially with this job. That mission changed my outlook on the explosive threat, and it changed the way I started to process information and evaluate any battlefield or area of responsibility.
To be continued…
Wait, there's more?? This is an amazing story!
Dam brother! Keep it flowing. Looking forward to part 4.