You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Iraq-Jordan
Iraq: Armored Hummer Saves Marine
2005-03-29
A wild story caught on film by CNN. The Marines is from near where I grew up.


WIVB
A Marine from the Southern Tier has quite a story to tell. Lance Corporal Jason Hunt cheated death when a car bomb exploded in Iraq. The big blast was caught on tape. It is an amazing act of heroism, caught on tape; a Western New York Marine on the front line of the fight for freedom in Iraq.

To on-lookers it appears to be just an abandoned car, sitting idle just outside Fallujah. But to Marines, every abandoned car is a potential bomb. Western New York native, Marine Jason Hunt, was inside an armored humvee pushing the car out of the way when it happened. The force of the blast threw a CNN photographer traveling with the Marines twelve feet back.

Amazingly, Hunt who inside the humvee right next to the car when the bomb went off, walked away unharmed. Lance Corporal Jason Hunt: "I was pretty close, I consider myself lucky."
KATU 2
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - A few Marines from Dragon Platoon survived an improvised explosive device while moving an abandoned vehicle from an important main supply route from Fallujah to Baghdad.

After finding the suspicious vehicle, the Marines eventually used an armored Humvee to push the car off the side of the road. As Marines were securing the area, the vehicle suddenly exploded while a CNN crew was videotaping.

The Marines believe it was detonated remotely by an insurgent triggerman who was watching and waiting for the right moment to injure or kill as many U.S. troops as possible. In this case, nobody was seriously hurt. The blast blew CNN Cameraman David Allbritton back 12 feet.

CNN Reporter Alex Quade said, "I saw he (Allbritton) was okay and I picked up my mini-cam to help record what was happening in front of us."

Immediately after the explosion the Marines climbed into the flaming Humvee to get ammunition out because the ammo could blow and cause other casualties. One of the lucky Marines, Lance Corporal Jason Hunt, told CNN that he thought he was going to die when the car exploded, then he immediately walked away from Quade to begin securing the area.

The explosion did not deter the Marines from their security duty; they were all out on patrol hunting for improvised explosive devices the next day.
Posted by:

#11  a.Jammers are provided as fast as the manufacturers can get them there. Warlock being the best to date

b. We do have blades for the M1

c.We are getting Buffaloes and their supporting systems (as pictured by CS) in country and the boys are learning to use them OJT

d. I will agree this isn't the best idea to get a suspect vehicle out of the road, but I suspect there something pressing about to come this way since the the theater commander is issuing smart cards on how to handle this given situation, and this isn't it.
Posted by: TopMac   2005-03-29 9:34:43 PM  

#10  Back in WWII, we used to have a some tanks with bulldozer blades on them. Ipso facto, they were immune to anything that wouldn't stop a tank.

Do we have anything like that any more? Has anyone thought about getting something like that? Could you make an add-on package for an M1?
Posted by: Jackal   2005-03-29 4:38:48 PM  

#9  Mrs. D...thats terrible. ;)
Posted by: Angeasing Thiling5293   2005-03-29 4:09:23 PM  

#8  The jammers are for VIP convoys. I doubt the troops in the field ever see one.
Posted by: gromky   2005-03-29 3:27:08 PM  

#7  The blast blew CNN Cameraman David Allbritton back 12 feet. CNN Reporter Alex Quade said, "I saw he (Allbritton) was okay

Not everything went perfectly.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-03-29 3:21:21 PM  

#6  Need a Buffalo

Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2005-03-29 3:14:07 PM  

#5  Too bad the local CSS outfit didn't have a dozer or some sort of wrecker on hand for this.
Posted by: Jarhead   2005-03-29 2:51:04 PM  

#4  How about some device to jam the signals that detonate the bomb? I thought those were being used in Iraq.
Posted by: Spot   2005-03-29 2:50:41 PM  

#3  3O cal then? They will not go as readily through the car.
Posted by: JFM   2005-03-29 2:26:22 PM  

#2  Maybe there needs to be an attachment or pole that can be attached to the hummer so that there is more "stand-off distance" between the hummer and the suspect vehicle needing pushing?

Lots of ideas better than just "pushing it out of the way with a hummer."

Can't really just fire up a .50 cal in an occupied city area. You wouldn't want one of those being fired in your neighborhood without really good cause. Could kill innocents.
Posted by: Leigh   2005-03-29 2:14:19 PM  

#1  What's wrong with a couple of dozen rounds of fiftycal?
This is too risky.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey   2005-03-29 1:50:30 PM  

00:00