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1/8 Engineer leads the way

Marine Corps News

Story Identification #: 200411244424
Story by Cpl. Randy L. Bernard

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 24, 2004) -- The role of a combat engineer is to assist the infantry by breaching any doors or obstacles in the way. One combat engineer found himself in the streets of Fallujah, blasting in doors to clear the way for his infantry counterparts.

Cpl. Michael R. Emans, a combat engineer assigned to 3rd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, used just about every trick of the trade to open stubborn doors, gates and walls during an all out assault on the insurgents hiding in the city of Fallujah.

During the initial phases of the assault, Emans got to try his hand at the combat aspect of his job.

“I used to like blowing up ordinance, which is explosive already, and we just stack more explosives on top of it and blow it,” said Emans, 22, a native of Bowling Green, Ohio. “I like it a lot better out here, running up to a door under fire, throwing a stick of C-4 on the door, yelling ‘smoke’ and the time on the fuse and then waiting for the explosion. You get to be so much closer (compared to a training situation) and you can feel the explosion. Destruction is very gratifying.”

Three and a half years ago, Emans approached a Marine Corps recruiter with one thing on his mind, combat engineering.

“My dad was a combat engineer in the Marine Corps and I wanted to work with explosives,” said Emans. “I walked into the recruiter’s door and said I wanted to be a combat engineer. He told me that it wasn’t guaranteed but I took the chance anyway.”

Now as a combat engineer, Emans considers himself a grunt with explosives, and his teammates appreciate the job that he does.

“His job made it great, because he could set up a charge and blow a door so that we could all just flood into the building,” Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Brennan, an assault man with 3rd platoon. “Plus it has a great shock effect on the enemy.”

Opening doors with explosives is not the only way that engineers push through the obstacles. They also use an array of mechanical devices such as sledgehammers, bolt-cutters and a crowbar-like tool called a hooligan tool. But when push comes to shove, and rounds start flying, explosives are a much faster way of gaining entry.

“90 percent of the time when we were fighting house to house, we blew everything because we were in a hurry and we were under fire,” said Emans. Over the span of a week, Emans alone used approximately 75 pounds of C-4, and more than 1,000 feet of detonation cord to clear the way for the infantrymen in his team.

Working with explosives has its ups and downs, and in a combat zone close calls can make the heart beat a little faster.

“I was blowing a cache with three rocket propelled grenades and a launcher, but I only had a 20 second fuse, so I had to do a mad dash for cover,” said Emans.

And sometimes the ‘closeness’ of the explosions are a little less than comforting.

“We put a charge on a big reinforced door with four locks,” said Brennan, 19, a native of Randolph, Mass. “We both had to run out of the house and when it exploded, the door went flying two houses down the street.”

Emans plans on continuing his engineering when he is done serving the Marine Corps, from destruction, to construction.

“Now my dad is a mason with a large construction company, and I want to be a mason when I get out of the Marine Corps. The job market out there is good for construction, and there is good money in it.”