`Thunderstruck' destroys insurgency routes to Baghdad
By Cpl. Bill Putnam
December 1, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 1, 2004) -- Nearly every night since the toppling of the Hussein regime last year, insurgents have been using roads in southern Baghdad's farming lands to launch attacks.
"They use the roads to conduct their rocket missions against the International Zone," said 1st Lt. William Woods, a platoon leader in Company B, 8th Engineer Battalion, referring to the palace complex of the Hussein regime and now site of the interim Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy in downtown Baghdad.
To deny those roads and essentially channel the insurgents into "kill zones," several of the roads and bridges the insurgents frequently used were blown by combat engineers from Company B, 8th Engineers, and Company B, 458th Engineer Battalion over several days in late November. They called it "Operation Thunderstruck." The operation got underway Nov. 27.
Blowing up the roads and bridges criss-crossing irrigation canals, farm fields and date palm groves in the rural areas south of Baghdad will delay or potentially stop insurgent attacks, Woods said.
The engineers went to six sites, destroying the roads and bridges using tools engineers love to use on the battlefield: cratering charges, mine-clearing line charges and plastic explosives. In all, the engineers used nearly 15 tons of explosives over the course of the operation.
For the 8th Engineers' Bravo Company Soldiers, Thunderstruck was the first time they've been able to do their primary jobs since arriving in Baghdad in April.
Woods said his engineers were ready to finally get "their hands on some demolitions" and put their "expertise" to use.
"We're very excited," Woods said.
"Essentially what the blown roads would do is deny the enemy an easy way in and out of the area," said Staff Sgt. Kirt Allen, an engineer squad leader in Bravo, 8th Engineers. "Anyway we can immobilize them, helps us out. So, if we slow them down, that helps us out."
In other words, Allen explained, "... turn them into a kill zone."
Allen, a nine-year veteran of the combat engineers and multiple deployments and numerous exercises, said he's lost track of the number of times he's blown demolition.
This, though, is his first time "blowing stuff up" in a real world situation, he said.
But he said he wasn't too excited about it. He's done it so much he doesn't get excited until the explosion.
After his platoon set two charges, 200 and 600 pounds each, the adrenaline level rose for Allen as he blew up two bridges crossing canals.
"That was good stuff, man," he said after the second blast.
Allen and Woods' group did see one close call the first day, though. A car tried driving over the bridge after the timer fuse had been set. The vehicle stopped at one point, but the small maroon car began slowly rolling up to the bridge despite the engineers' arm waving and yelling.
With just under 30 seconds until the explosion, an engineer fired warning shots with an M-2 .50 caliber machine gun. The driver got the point and turned around.
"That would've been bad news if he hadn't stopped in time," Woods said.
A few seconds later, 600 pounds of explosives destroyed the bridge with a resounding boom and tower of flying dirt.
"Yeah!" several engineers said almost at once.
"That's how you blow stuff up," one of them said.
(Editor's note: Cpl. Bill Putnam serves with the 122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Washington state National Guard.)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
