Prof. Andew Lubin
The mission, Marines, is to secure a stretch of road where both we and the Brits have taken IED casualties,” said First Lieutenant Stephen Strieby, 1st Platoon commander at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, just prior to jumping off on an Oct. 5 route reconnaissance mission.
“We’ll be sweeping an area 10 to 12 klicks [kilometers] south, out by that little village. We’ll be linking up with a British unit who’ll provide overwatch, and they’ll have snipers out to assist if necessary.”
Strieby’s platoon is one of three in 1st Route Clearance Company, 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division. Deployed to Afghanistan as part of Task Force Leatherneck in March, the Marines have been clearing roads and areas to the north of Camp Leatherneck, primarily in the Delaram and Now Zad areas, near the borders of Helmand and Farah provinces.
The other platoons are stationed far to the south—2d Plt with 1st Bn, 5th Marine Regiment and 3d Plt with 2nd Bn, 8th Marines. All of the platoons are exceptionally active, as the Taliban and other insurgents find homemade improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to be their weapon of choice against the overpowering Marine firepower.
The vehicles already had been prepped, so within minutes of Strieby’s mission brief, 1st Plt was moving out. The heart of a Route Clearance Co is an odd-looking vehicle known as a “Husky,” and two are assigned to each platoon. Gone are the days of looking for IEDs by poking trash with bayonets and looking for piles of garbage with a string leading to the side of the road.
The IED war in Afghanistan is far different from those days in Ramadi or Haditha, Iraq. The Afghan war is primarily being conducted in the countryside and, as such, must be conducted differently. In many areas, there are no roads. Convoys follow the tracks of those who came before them, not unlike how T. E. Lawrence guided his guerrillas through the desert.
Most often, IEDs are buried haphazardly, often along a 100- to 200-meter line intersecting the direction of travel. At this point in time, IEDs here are far less sophisticated than those found in Iraq. In Afghanistan they are primarily pressure late detonated, not remote-detonated as was prevalent in Iraq’sAlAnbar province. Built in South Africa, the Husky mine detecting vehicle sports two large drop down magnetic panels that detect anything metallic buried in the ground to a depth of approximately 18 inches.
This ground based sonar is very effective; a trained operator can detect objects as small as screws and as thin as a flattened soda can.
Survivability is a big attribute for the Husky, both for the driver and the vehicle. The driver’s compartment is armored to protect against a .50-caliber round, whilethe South African-patented “V-shape” design protects the driver and the engine against an IED blast.
A ceramic tile-on metal system, which can be repaired by technicians at Camp Leatherneck, provides protection. The front and rear wheel modules are breakaways, which means that often a new module can be bolted on, and hydraulic lines replaced within an hour.
The wrecked modules are often reconstructed, giving the route clearance company a mobility option to keep the Huskies in the field. At Camp Leatherneck, repairs, service and even driver training are supervised by a South African civilian technician who is assisted by an American. They live with the Marines of Route Clearance Co and take a professional and personal interest in ensuring their Huskies perform at peak each day.
Upon the detection of an IED by the Husky operator, the driver-operator calls for a Buffalo, an armored vehicle with a large articulated arm. This armored vehicle comes forward and digs the object, sometimes an IED but often trash, out for inspection. The articulated arm operator for 1st Plt during this October patrol was Lance Corporal Austin Born, and he, teamed with driver LCpl Adam Horne, was sufficiently skilled to dig out an IED without setting it off.
"Oh, we find a lot of IEDs,” said Corporal Jack Green, the Buffalo’s vehicle commander. “In 53 missions, we’ve found 35 IEDs. We’ve also taken 17 hits.”
As the convoy bounced over the rough terrain for an hour, approaching its objective, the two Huskies moved forward in the column and began to sweep the ground. Green explained that most of the IEDs are 25 to 80 pounds of explosive, often stuffed into a plastic bottle, with a pressure plate detonator.
The problem now,” he said, “is that the bad guys are using nonmetallics like wood blocks and plastic bicycle seats to make the pressure plates, and we can’t pick them up.” Covering the ground in a casual, racetrack pattern, Husky drivers Cpl Isaac Hernandez and Cpl Michael Rodriguez listened for any tones in their headsets that would signify a buried metallic object, as the Buffalo, medical vehicle and accompanying gun trucks sat waiting in the scorching Afghan sun for them to finish sweeping the area.
With most of the area cleared, the Huskies slowly led the column up a steep sand dune, when suddenly there was a huge explosion; from 50 meters back, the shock could be felt through the floorboards of the Buffalo, as thick brown smoke and dirt engulfed the lead Husky and the surrounding area.
The unit radios exploded with activity as leaders sought to determine the driver’s condition. Within a minute or so, Cpl Hernandez reported in; he was fine, although a front wheel had been blown off his Husky, his magnetic panel was missing, and the blast had ripped the roof off the driver’s compartment around him.
It was a bigger-than usual IED, perhaps 80 lbs. of explosive, pressure-plate actuated, and fortunately it had gone off next to Hernandez’s vehicle as it passed by, instead of underneath it. The medical vehicle shot forward, and Hospitalman Michael “Doc” Harshman reported that Hernandez had bruised his back in the explosion, but was otherwise in good shape.
As soon as his Marine was with Doc Harshman, Strieby concentrated on getting his Husky recovered; an explosive ordnance demolition team arrived to check the area and start the post-blast analysis.
A vehicle recovery team consisting of anM88 tank retriever, a 7-tonwrecker and a flatbed tractor-trailer arrived to transport the two sections of the Husky back to base. Now the 1st Plt’s new numbers are 54 missions, 36 IEDs found and 18 hits, and as soon as the Husky is repaired, they’re off north to keep the roads clear for their infantry brothers in 2d Bn, 3dMarines in Delaram.
Stumble It!
