THE HYDREMA MACHINE DETONATING A TM-57 ANTI-TANK MINE
Posted on 09/22/2002 9:09:51 AM PDT by Tancred
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - It's a bad day for U.S. soldiers David Paulk and Bryan Allen when they don't hit a land mine.
"We're having so much fun when the mines are exploding," says Paulk, a 24-year-old National Guardsman from Vick, La., who operates a Hydrema 910 MCV, a massive armored truck with flailing chains designed to trigger mines, at Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan.
"Days like these, when we ain't hitting a thing, it's like we're just driving a truck," adds Allen, 30, who monitors the Hydrema's computerized systems and helps Paulk steer a steady course through the cloud of dust kicked up by the machine. Both men are with the 769th Engineers Battalion based out of Baton Rouge, La., which is also Allen's hometown.
"It just ain't right," he says with a laugh.
Jokes aside, clearing minefields is serious business at Bagram, a former Soviet base that is now the dusty home of about 3,500 coalition troops.
U.S. and coalition forces have cleared an estimated 7,000 mines since the first allied troops arrived late last year, but about 15,000 mines remain around the base. It was once the front line between Taliban and northern alliance fighters, and is among the more densely mined areas in Afghanistan, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Allen, Paulk and the four other U.S. soldiers that operate the three Hydremas at the base have been at it for three months, taking over from the Norwegians who cleared mines with the machine since the beginning of the year.
"I don't think I'd want to be out there clearing these fields," said Paulk, looking out the window of the Hydrema cabin. "In here, it's good, fun work."
Outside, the vehicle's chains turned a strip of grassy field into a swath of dirt and dust.
The Hydrema looks like an armored truck with a heavy plate and a long, metal tube wrapped in chains mounted on top of the back half.
Press a few buttons, and the plate — a blast shield — extends parallel to the vehicle's rear. Beyond it, two arms hold the metal tube in place as the 72 chains unfurl. The two seats in the cabin swing around, allowing the operators to steer the vehicle, which goes backward when clearing.
With the flick of a few more switches, the metal tube begins spinning and the chains, which have weights on the ends, churn up the earth underneath, sending up a plume of dust and triggering any mines they hit.
At least a dozen U.S. and coalition soldiers have been injured trying to clear mine fields since efforts to remove mines at Bagram began late last year.
Nearly all of those injured were clearing the mines the old-fashioned way — gingerly walking through fields and searching out mines with prods, marking and exploding the ones they uncover.
Not one soldier has been hurt using a Hydrema in Afghanistan.
That safety record isn't a fluke, said Mikael Larsen, a Danish engineer who maintains the vehicles at Bagram.
"The drivers are the most important things," said the 30-year-old from Seeland, who has been working with Hydrema's since the first one was built in 1998. "Machinery is replaceable."
The Hydrema's cab, like the entire vehicle, is heavily armored. The eight windows are about 3 inches thick.
The vehicle's tires are filled with foam — "it helps absorb fragments if the wheel hits a mine," Larsen said.
The company that makes the vehicle guarantees the machine will withstand a blast from up to 22 pounds of explosives without anyone getting injured.
"We've had incidents of up to 15 kilograms," — about 33 pounds, Larsen said.
The biggest threat comes from large unexploded ordinance, such as bombs that could tear a Hydrema apart.
To minimize that threat, individual mine clearers and specially trained dogs check fields before the Hydremas go in.
With little threat of injury, Allen and Paulk are relaxed about clearing mine fields. For them, the key word is "fun."
Still, their families worry.
Allen said his wife was upset when he first told her about his assignment. "But then I called and told her about how much fun I'm having and, since then, she doesn't mind as much," he said.
The most exciting kind of mine to hit?
"An anti-tank mine, definitely ... I wish we could hit one today," said Paulk, who works as correctional officer when he's not serving in the National Guard. They've hit six so far.
"It's an experience," adds Allen, a slot-machine technician, from the passenger seat. "It just shakes this thing up and down, throws you around the cabin, it's loud, the whole cabin fills with dust. You have to stop ... it makes you want to have a cigarette."
Hey, be careful. That could be dangerous. :=)
THIS is a classic.
THE HYDREMA MACHINE DETONATING A TM-57 ANTI-TANK MINE
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