Was there a particular job in Iraq or Afghanistan that was particularly dreaded/dangerous? Something analogous to tunnel rats in Vietnam?
>>30533914
EOD or route clearance to a lesser extent.
Theres rivers in Iraq believe it or not.
I've heard SWCC will deploy on their boats on these rivers, and just putt around until they inevitably get ambushed, and release hell.
Then once they reach a dam, a Chinook lifts them up and over and they do it all over again.
So using yourself as bait on a lightly-armored, heavily-armed boat seems pretty dangerous.
I was EOD, it was dangerous but we always felt confident because we had the training, tools, and up to date technical intel to deal with IEDs.
I respect Husky drivers for being the designated convoy casualty.
>>30534434
Sounds like Apocalypse now...
Any pics or links with more infos?
>>30533914
Maybe vallon man? Soldier at the front of a patrol, walking with a heavy metal detector looking for IEDs, doing that plus keeping an eye out for ambushes or whatever. Couldn't be a job many wanted.
>>30533992
>route clearance to a lesser extent
Nigger, RCP were the ones who found IEDs for EOD to fuck with, and had to make damn sure the area was secure before they even left their air conditioned trailer to go outside the wire. Which was fun, because most IEDs were simply part of a complex attack. EOD was extremely safe compared to Route Clearance.
>RCP finds IED
>gets ambushed by bad guys
>kills bad guys
>make sure no more bad guys are around
>calls EOD ONLY if its something weird (lol, only 50lbs)
>waits for 2-4 hours for EOD to show up
>get mortared while waiting
>EOD halts and waits another hour until area is clear
>EOD finally shows up
>drive out robot, look at IED
>bring robot back
>send robot out with C4
>call in blast window
>wait another hour for blast window approval
>potshots/mortar fire optional at this point
>blast window approved
>blow IED, EOD returns to base
>RCP continues on patrol
They arent out there snipping wires and stopping cars with M9's. Stop believing movies, not everything Hollywood puts out is true. Shocker I know.
t. 12B, combat engineer, 2 tours with Clearance companies.
>>30535323
>I know the workings of somebody else's job
:^)
>>30535329
>What is reading comprehension?
>>30535344
I read. I saw a 12B was talking about what an 89D's job is.
Also implyin' EOD doesn't go on RCP.
Truck drivers and route clearance.
>>30535407
You obviously didn't read the part where I literally watched them do their jobs in 2 separate deployments. Know how many times we had attached EOD? A grand total of 4, and that was only in Afghanistan.
I'm not "implyin'" shit. And quit typing like that you inbred fuck, I know you think it makes you sound older, but it just makes you sound like a retard. Next you'll be calling me "son" and telling me all about how I'm wrong and you did 36 years with EOD and cleared more routes than any RCP ever.
I don't even have issue with EOD. The Navy guys were kind of slack ass, but our EOD was on point and knew what they were about. I just hate fuck heads that think the Hurt Locker was a 100% true story, and not about as accurate as Heartbreak Ridge.
And before you say I'm implying again, HBR was a great movie. It just wasn't terribly accurate (old man was in Grenada as a Navy Corpsman). Hurt Locker was a giant steamy pile though, and everytime people ask me what I did, that's the first thing they jump to. I've started telling people I cleared mines instead, gives them a better picture.
>>30535407
They only started integrating eod into rcp's a few years ago, you cuck.
The reason was because they felt too much intel was being lost, and too many large ied's were being blown in roads. Rcps were only supposed to bip ieds if they were 40lbs or smaller. So, instead of waiting in place, getting shit on with saf and mortars or rockets or rpg's, every ied became a 40lb'er.
Because sitting in place waiting for eod to roll to you, possibly getting ambushed or hitting something buried after you drove up the route is a bad fucking idea.
>>30535493
>I literally watched them do their jobs
>had to make damn sure the area was secure before they even left their air conditioned trailer to go outside
You know they take forever to show up because there is a queue of incidents and a limited amount of teams on call for an entire AO, yeah? Usually somewhere between 3-5 teams for a couple of provinces, yeah? That's not a lot.
>drive out robot, look at IED
>bring robot back
>send robot out with C4
>call in blast window
That's rarely what the robot is doing. Usually it is tearing the IED apart for intelligence value.
And the team has to go manually stop around afterwards to make sure no secondaries.
And the job is not just confined to RCP response. The team you see responding to your RCP might find themselves having to hop on a helicopter later that day to go support somebody else on a moment's notice.
And not all teams run out of vehicles. The guys humping it through the mountains don't have robots to deal with IEDs.
And they have to dead with securing caches, usually manually, to make sure all boobytrap are disarmed.
And they have to deal with any dead bodies that might have a potentional explosive vest (still dangerous from a timer or cellphone on another insurgent), often manually.
And they have to clear all IDF duds and dudded RPGs that get stuck in the walls.
And after all that they have to go back to base, and do initial intelligence collection on all that shit.
Just because you don't see them when you snap your fingers doesn't mean they aren't busy or putting themselves in front of explosives on a daily basis.
>>30535560
>[ ] not rekt
>[X] rekt
Well consider me fuckingschooled then, I'll guess I'll just find a chair somewhere and sit my ass down. Can't help being a salty Engineer when everybody mistakes you for BlasterOne everytime you tell people what you did. Makes a guy feel marginalized in an already marginalized job.
>>30535551
Is on point though. Unless there was some heinous shit leaking out of an IED our EOCA bipped it and we drove on, because every time we waited on EOD, we got fucked up.
Over a deployment of 1 year, I personally ran 197 patrols, minus leave and three days I spent in a hospital + the week of stand down afterwards. I know exactly how it feels to be stretched across a battle space, so we're on the same page there.
How often did you guys get into contact? That's not a patronizing question by the way, I'm legitimately curious. We saw a good bit mounted, and a lot of small arms in Iraq, but dismounted (and mounted too honestly) in Afghanistan was hellish. We got blown up so many times in RC South I quit keeping count after awhile. RC East was better in terms of contact, a lot more small arms there, and it was actually a little fun to get to fire and maneuver or call in CAS and ruin some guy's day.
>>30535703
I rolled mounted into Wadak, maybe 50/50 chance of contact. It was most likely after dealing with IED, when team member exited vehicle to sweep for secondaries. Guy got PKM'd in the leg that way.
Pretty often on dismount. Depended on who we were supporting. Delt with combined arms ambushes that included RPG Fire and/or launched grenades. Guy in my unit got two kills with his M9 when he had to check out a ditch with two mostly, but not fully dead insurgents in it.
Everybody got some degree of blown up at some point by close IEDs, charges blown within safe distance, or IDF.
I get a bit salty at the "EOD plays Xbox all day" meme because it's by people who only see a sliver of the job. Also, your command, talking at around the battalion level not unoften will jerk around and delay calling EOD, adding possibly hours to the response. EOD 1SG and commanders spend a lot of time yelling at these people because it fucks over RCPs and makes EOD look bad.
Vallon Man
>>30536021
>guy got 2 kills with an M9 checking a ditch of "mostly" dead insurgents
TopfuckingKek, go to the sidearm thread and tell that story, they want to know when people use their sidearms in combat.
And I am fully aware of the dickery that happens at the TOC level, actually have a pretty good story for that one
>Doing RCP innairaq
>Route Tampa, simple patrol, about 8 hours duration
>Battlespace Sgt Major decides to ride along
>ohboyherewego.jpg
>stick him in the Buffalo for safety's sake, mind our P's and Q's
>he actually cracks a few jokes over the radio, pretty chill dude
>front vic calls all halt, suspicious container
>Buffalo investigates, some sort of metal object with weird liquid leaking out of it
>CBRN threat intensifies
>I'm PSG driver, he calls it up to battlespace TOC
>no response for like 5 minutes, finally get an answer
>tell him the situation, he says to stand by
>comes back and tells us he can't call EOD
>Why the fuck not?
>TOC OIC is at chow, RTO is by himself and can't get leave to go get him
>sayagain.gif
>fuckery goes on for another half hour, cant get our company or battalion TOCs on the radio
>suddenly hear muffled explosion
>Oh fuck
>a minute goes by, another explosion, this time closer
>every civilian in the immediate area takes off at a sprint
>they get their range, and start dripping mortars on us for real
>PSG screaming at TOC, RTO is shitting himself
>mortar hits about five feet away from Buffalo
>Sgt Major comes over Battlespace freq
>"This is Patriot 7 actual, we are BIPing this IED and RTB, you will ensure everyone on duty is waiting at my TOC when we return understood? 7 OUT."
>oh shit nigger
>within five minutes we pop and drop on suspected CBRN hazard
>fly back to the FOB at 30mph (basically light speed)
He gave us all coins, and sent another unit out to clear a route. I walked by their TOC on the way back and there was a Cpt. standing at attention outside while 3 privates threw his shit out of he building.
>MFW
>be flying convoy security in RC south
>job is to protect convoy, scout ahead,"spot" IEDs
>everything looks like an IED at 1000 feet
>call up suspicious rubble pile near bridge
>EOD called in
>have to come out of KAF
>they take 2 hours
>they get there, interrogate the rubble pile
>nah its just some rocks
>rinse and repeat for 12 hours
such is life. better than working with kiowas tho
>>30536337
A friend told me an empty boot got reported as an IED once when he did EOD.
>>30536355
seriously, shit happened all the time. we damn near castrated our wingman when he started calling out a hotspot in FLIR as an IED because it was like 0500 and we were on deep nights just trying to get the convoy home.
>>30536355
That's not at all unusual. A boot, a soda can, some suspicious twigs, color ribbons in a tree. All called in. And sometimes they *were* IEDs.
>>30536337
Why not have an EOD attachment travel with the convoy? Not enough personnel?
>>30536514
Apparently
>>30535560
>>30536514
KAF was an enormous base, probably the biggest in afghan or maybe the second. The amount of convoys going in and out every day was astronomical.
>>30536568
My bad, didn't go through the whole thread
