| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Brigade meets first roadside bomb |
| 2003-12-08 |
| AT THE STRYKER BRIGADE BASE CAMP, Iraq - A group of Fort Lewis soldiers survived a roadside bombing Sunday a little shaken but otherwise unharmed. The explosion sent debris flying into the windshield of Spc. Jordan Salazar’s Humvee, peppering the glass with dozens of little dings. "All of a sudden it seemed like we were just covered in dirt," said Salazar, with the 864th Engineer Battalion from Fort Lewis. The battalion has been in Iraq since April with the 555th Engineer Group, operating mostly throughout northern Iraq. Salazar’s convoy was on its way to ranges at the Stryker brigade’s sprawling base camp. He was driving the last vehicle in a convoy of about a dozen trucks and Humvees, with another soldier in the passenger seat and a half dozen more in the back. A heavy tow truck driving in front of Salazar had just passed over the spot that blew up about 20 meters in front of him, Salazar said. Salazar said he didn’t see anything unusual about the road in front of him. The explosion occurred about 8:45 a.m. just outside of Duluiyah, a town near the Tigris River between Baghdad and Tikrit. Such roadside bombs - in Army parlance, they call them improvised explosive devices, or IEDs - are a constant threat for U.S. troops traveling the roads in Iraq. The remainder of the article has descriptions of several accidents that have occured. |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #2 Salazar said he didn’t see anything unusual about the road in front of him That will change. (and maybe mjh is on to something) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-8 7:05:31 PM |
| #1 It seems like there might be some low-tech solution to prevent the planting of IED's on roadways used by the Army et al. For instance, why not spread a heavy, brightly colored dust on the road. A substance that's not easily dispersed by air, or inorganic materials, but bonds to organic materials (like hands, face, etc.). Or, maybe something that is visible to different wavelengths of light, but invisible to the naked eye. So that when the hunters put on special goggles, these J.O.'s light up like an x-mas tree... |
| Posted by: mjh 2003-12-8 4:27:56 PM |