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EOD mission ends in "Ammo Alley"

by Cpl. Keith A. Kluwe

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Army News Service, April 21, 2003) -- A mission started a year ago in Afghanistan ended April 15 when Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians destroyed two caches of ordnance in what has come to be called "Ammo Alley."

The mission was delayed more than a year after three EOD technicians and a Special Forces soldier were killed in an explosion April 15, 2002 at the same site, 35 kilometers northwest of Kandahar Air Field.

"One of my good friends was killed there last year, Sgt Jamie Mulligans," said Staff Sgt. Baylin Oswalt, an EOD team leader with the 731st Ordnance Company (EOD) from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "We went through both phases of EOD school together, and then we were stationed together for a year in Korea. He was a real good friend of mine and this mission brought closure being able to go out to where he was killed and destroy that cache."

Others who finished the mission recalled their fallen comrades.

"Everyone felt their loss. We're a very tight-knit community so when some one dies in the line of duty, there name doesn't just go on the memorial. We all remember them, whether we knew them from school or through friends." Staff Sgt Jeffrey Mclean, an EOD team leader with the 754th Ord. Co. (EOD) from Ft. Monmouth, N.J.

EOD teams from the 731st, 754th and 705th Ord. companies (EOD) rigged the two piles of ordnance with C-4 explosives, destroyed two large caches of Chinese-made Type 63, 107 mm fin-stabilized rockets, like the ones that are used in attacks against all the fire bases in Afghanistan, said Oswalt.

Heavy equipment engineers that plowed a new road to the cache sites, and a safety around the sites supported the EOD teams. The roads gave a safe area for the EOD teams to rest and a safe route from the main road in the valley out to the sites.

"With caches in this country you have to watch out for booby-traps," Mclean said. "We knew this site had been previously booby-trapped.... We used the bulldozer to sever any hard wired remote-controlled devices that might have been at the objective we were dealing with."

In the long run, this mission into "Ammo Alley" will also keep weapons and ordnance out of the hand of people wishing to destabilize the national and provincial governments, or cause harm to U.S. forces, officials said.

"We are denying the enemy use of the 107 mm rockets because it seems like they are weapon of choice for the most part," said Lt. Col. Keith Angles, battalion commander of the 184th Ord. Battalion (EOD) from Ft. Gillam, Ga.. "It's almost everyday we hear about one of our compounds getting a 107 mm rockets at it, so the more of those we dispose of, the less they are going to have to shoot at us."

"Ammo Alley is still a big concern. There is still a lot of ammunition and ordnance out there that can be used by hostile Taliban or Al Qaeda, or anyone else that wants to do harm to coalition forces," Mclean said.

There are still more than 20 known munitions cache sites in the valley.

(Editor's note: by Cpl. Keith A. Kluwe is assigned to CTF82 Public Affairs.)