DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

This is to Certify that the Secretary of the Army has awarded

THE ARMY COMMEDNATION MEDAL
TO: Private First Class Jeremiah Proctor
Task Force Kodiak.

“For outstanding service while assigned as a Combat Engineer with Alpha Company, Task Force Kodiak in support of Operation Enduring Freedom 06-08. Private First Class (should say Specialist) Jeremiah Proctor’s keen eye and vast knowledge of his Crew Served Weapon Systems and Vehicle Contributed gratefully to the overall operation capitalists of Route Clearance Platoon Three. Private First Class Proctor’s attection to detail proved immeasurable as the AN/PSS-12 Mine Detector Operator, clearing three Kilometers of Route !@#$% (cant use the name) that resulted in zero IED strikes over a 7/Seven day period. Private First Class Proctor’s performance reflects grate credit upon him, Combined Task Force Rugged and the United States Army.”

Thank you
And your welcome

To me, I think it's great to be able to congratulate any of our Hatrackers on their many and varied accomplishments.

So again, C*O*N*G*R*A*T*U*L*A*T*I*O*N*S!!!

We're glad that you received recognition and came through safe and whole. No need to bring politics into it.

Especially when what you are looking for is a plastic mine, and the only metal is the firing pin

Given the state of things this:

quote:

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AN/PSS-12 Mine Detector Operator, clearing three Kilometers of Route !@#$% (cant use the name) that resulted in zero IED strikes over a 7/Seven day period.

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is a pretty awesome accomplishment.

Glad to have you home though.

And I do plane to use some of the things I did in a novel (other than the short works I started and never got back to)

And for those wondering I am a bit buzzed now I admit I had a drink in cellibration.

And yes I am off work and on line and don’t have much to do.

I'm glad that this thread is opened again. I think that it's a shame when people take a thread in a forum about any apolitical subject and turn the topic to politics.

Thank you so very much for your service to The United States and to the people of Iraq. Every day over there you put your life on the line for people you don't know, struggling to make their lives safer, and many of us appreciate it.

From my understanding, not first-hand, being a mine-sweeper is probably one of the most stressful jobs in the Army today. It seems that a plastique bomb whose only metal component is is the triggering device would require very close approach to detect, and that cannot be an easy thing. You have more courage in your little finger, I suspect, than many here have in their entire bodies. In the Navy, my former service, we would say Bravo Zulu. Excellent job, my brother in arms.

To those who seek to diminish your achievement with their political views, I would say this.

It is not the job of the American Fighting Man (or Woman) to make policy. It is not their job to decide when to fight, nor who to fight. They volunteer to sacrifice their lives in service to their country. If their lives are not surrendered in the performance of their duties, that is to everyone's gain. Please don't minimize this courage or honor by confusing it with their approval of foreign policy.

Thomas Moseley
Former ET2(SW), United States Navy

quote:

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Who is putting these mines in place? Are they left overs from the days of Hussein, or are they there to stop US troop movements?

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Where to start.

In Afghanistan and Iraq any thing that the enemy puts in the road that explodes is called and IED, Improvised Explosive Device. If it is in a car that is being or going to be driven into a target we call it an VBIED. Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device.

Most of the time the explosives are home made and are highly unstable. So when we find them we blast them in place. unless it is something we can get info from then we disarm it and recover it. Not a fun thing to do especially if it has an electronic detonation device. (We let EOD, Explosive Ordnance disposal, deal with that for they are trained to handle that.)

I have not been to Iraq yet but will most likely go there next.

I have been to Afghanistan, and things are a lot different. For example, the Taliban placed IED’s not only to kill us but to also kill the local Afghans who work for us. For those who don’t know Afghanistan is the worlds most heavily mined country. Ever since the Soviets left there has been nothing but constant fighting among the Afghan people.

Most of the IED’s and mines we have found have been recovered from a soviet mine field or an even older English mine field, or even plastic mines from other countries.

And the Taliban thrives on this by doing what they want when they want because the Afghan people were to busy trying to get by. When we invaded Afghanistan the fighting among the locals stopped and they came together for the better of their lives and the future of their country. They actually like us being over there, from what I have gathered from talking with some locals through an interrupter.

I gtg for now but will finish later

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvised_explosive_device

Who laid the mines? Things are never simple. According to my Google search, Iraq is peppered with mines due to decades of conflict ...

Human Rights Watch piece dated 2002:

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/iraq/iraqmines1212.htm

UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, dated July 2008:

http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=19&ReportId=62813&Country=Yes

Details of several projects from the Electronic Mine Information Network, dated July 2008:

http://www.mineaction.org/projects.asp?c=14

Congratulations, Jeremiah, on your award. You have my unreserved respect.

As has been remarked, mines are very hard to detect. I know, I was once a member of the design team for electronic fuzes for British Anti Personnel mines. They were a couple of inches in diameter, plastic, and the Army would spray dozens of them over a field. If you stepped on one it blew your leg off. They were designed to maim, not kill, so as to demoralise the enemy by forcing them to care for a fallen, screaming comrade. The fuze was microelectronic, very little metal, hard to find with an electromagetic detector. At that time--Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin were in the charts--the only reliable way of detecting them was to crawl on your belly, prodding the ground ahead with a long stick. Gently.

Since they're so dangerous after war, there are international treaties governing their use. But not everyone signs up.

(Edited to add: Sorry, I googled Mines in Iraq having forgotten that Jeremiah is in Afghanistan. I imagine the picture is not so different, however.)

Again, congrats Jeremiah
Pat

Yes there is a grate many different types of hard to detect mines, plastic, glass, and the hardest to detect plastic mine with a glass container with a cartelistic detonator. The enemy likes to use what they can so they will take a anti personnel mine and use it as a detonator for a larger charge.

As for craw on the ground and probe I have dune that and hated every seconded of it. At the time we used fiberglass rods to probe until we realized that the ground is to hard so we started using our fighting knives, bayonets screwdrivers, any thing that was sharp and hard enough to poke into the ground and still be able to find anything be a rock, old coke can, old brake shoe, etc.

I cant go into much here but we do have a Vehicle that can detect large metal anti tank mines, and other metal things that might be a danger.

To tell the truth it is safer to be a Combat Engineer that any other job, although we are the front line we have the best chance of surviving a IED hit due to the Vehicles we have that are designed to be blown up. And I have seen this first hand, on both sides, and cleaned up to many burnt out remains of Humves and cleaned up to many dead US bodies (no I haven’t cleaned up anyone I know, and no although I wanted to eat them I couldn’t it would not have looked good for me to start eating a dead comrade even though he was human. And for those of you who don’t know yes I am a Werewolf if you have questions about werewolves send me an e-mail) to know that we are better off as Combat Engineers with our Vehicles.

As for using the AN/PSS-12 Mine Detector, it looks and is basically the same as the ones we were using back in Vietnam. Setting them up is easy but if you “F” up you can miss something important. Setting the calibration on is a haste because they are always changing the “best” way to do so. And testing it is always changing as well. Once you get it all set up let the “FUN” begin. You take all the metal off your person and are wearing just the basics uniform, armor, helmet, boots, gloves, and eye protection. You sweep and sweep, and sweep…. Listing for any changes of the tone, with no hits it is a dull tick, tick, tick, etc. once you near metal the tone starts to wine and screech. And you determine the size, shape, and depth of the hit by how it sounds. Mark it with poker chips (yes we have thousands of those poker chips you bye from a $1 store) and tell the dismount team leader where it is, what it might be. They send the prober down and he probes the area. It is a pain full process that can take hours to completely clear a area 3mX3mX3m. If you are not careful you can become complacent and not notice a hit, or even go tone deaf. (I have become tone deaf before) that means your mind is droning suttel changes in the tones. Nothing that causes hearing loss, it is just your mind is not recognizing those tones due to boredom.

And to finish that thought off, it is a long boring painful process that saves lives. And yes you are scarred to be out there with the Mine Detector. The closest people to you are a minimum of 100m back. So if you do become a pink mist and lose a leg, it takes a few secants for the help to arrive. That is if you went blasted into an uncleared area. Then they have to clear to you and around you. That thought is always near the top of things in your mind being out there. First one is you job, 2nd is locating and 3rd is becoming a “pink mist.”

That is all I can really say with out giving classified info out which I am NOT going to do.

Didn’t see this before I hit post reply

That is quite true. The land mine is the “perfect” solder, for it stays in place for many many many years, and kills with out mercy, for race, religion, creed, color, etc.

“At that time--Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin were in the charts”

Mummmmmmm LED ZEPPELIN mummmmmmmmm……….

But there is something similar to detonate trip wire IEDs