thedrifter
11-29-05, 11:52 AM
December 05, 2005
On ‘IED Lane,’ troops learn the rules of a dangerous road
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — At a glance, the gravelly dirt road looks like any other stretch of desert road, littered with the occasional rocks, trash, tumbleweed and a broken-down car.
But with a closer eye and guided words from combat-seasoned engineers, truths of the road reveal themselves.
A 155mm round is encased in a concrete curb. A piece of dried brush covers tripwired artillery rounds tucked inside a buried tire. Discarded U.S. ammunition cans are stuffed with explosives connected to a cell phone. An empty MRE box also loaded with explosives is connected to wires buried under a pressure plate in the road.
Combat engineers placed the mock makeshift bombs, or improvised explosive devices, to show fellow leathernecks how to identify danger.
They call it “IED Lane.” The simple stretch of road near the new “Iraqi village” training ranges at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center here is a critical part of training before deploying to a combat zone. Roadside bombs, say Marine officials, are the biggest killers in Iraq, accounting for 70 percent to 72 percent of U.S. military combat casualties.
“The enemy adapted, and … their best opportunity now [to inflict casualties] is the remotely detonated improvised explosive device,” said Lt. Gen. John Sattler, who commands I Marine Expeditionary Force.
It’s a life-and-death game staying ahead of an adaptive enemy. Insurgents could set up a basic, single-round IED in five minutes, Sattler said.
The military, he said, is countering with a “holistic” approach that includes better individual protection, armored vehicles and revised tactics, techniques and procedures, as well as new jamming systems. IED Lane continually morphs, showing leathernecks the most current designs of IEDs and insurgent tactics.
“In the last week, those devices have already changed as the Marines have created new obstacles and new IEDs to train the Marines walking through it,” said Brig. Gen. Doug Stone, who runs Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training Command. “Orientation and understanding is one piece of it. Technology is the other, and there’s a lot of effort going on.”
Tires turn deadly
Stone joined Sattler in a walk-through of IED Lane on Nov. 14 to see how it has progressed.
Cpl. Scottie Carter, a combat engineer with Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, pointed to a curb. He picked up a piece of the curb and revealed a 155mm round encased in the concrete. “We’ve actually seen several of these in the Karma area around Fallujah,” he told the generals.
Discarded rubber tires might be common, but they are heavily scrutinized. Carter, 22, who will return to Iraq in January, showed how a bush covered a buried tire packed with 155mm artillery rounds, connected to an improvised antenna and two-way radio for remote detonation.
“If you saw a rubber tire, you obviously gave it a wide berth,” he said. However, he noted, insurgents have been placing secondary IEDs nearby to nab the force in the “kill zone.”
Vehicles are also constant concerns. Insurgents have turned cars, whether in working condition or broken down, into makeshift bombs. So Marines must quickly assess the threat. Should they help move the vehicle out of the way? Will it detonate, or is it really just broken down? Should they isolate the car and get an explosive ordnance disposal team to assess it?
Sattler recalled one case in which troops went to help a man whose car broke down at a checkpoint. “The guy went out and he was helping push it, and then all of the sudden the car got off,” he said. He suspects the owner didn’t know his car was outfitted with explosives, which killed a U.S. soldier and Iraqi soldiers.
“I hate to say it, but don’t trust anyone. … You want them to get away from the car. You’re more prone to help them out,” he said. But before they do, he’d prefer that engineers or EOD teams be brought in to be certain.
Lance Cpl. Ron Griffith, a 30-year-old combat engineer from Camp Pendleton, is telling anyone who’ll listen why they should never leave the slightest hint of trash behind, even in a combat zone. As Sattler and Stone looked on, Griffith explained how an empty box became a deadly bomb.
“What they would do is take our trash, stuff it with PE4 [explosives] and bury it back under the road,” he said. “That’s why I try to tell Marines you’ve got to police your own, make sure you don’t give anything to the enemy they could use against us.”
Ellie
On ‘IED Lane,’ troops learn the rules of a dangerous road
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — At a glance, the gravelly dirt road looks like any other stretch of desert road, littered with the occasional rocks, trash, tumbleweed and a broken-down car.
But with a closer eye and guided words from combat-seasoned engineers, truths of the road reveal themselves.
A 155mm round is encased in a concrete curb. A piece of dried brush covers tripwired artillery rounds tucked inside a buried tire. Discarded U.S. ammunition cans are stuffed with explosives connected to a cell phone. An empty MRE box also loaded with explosives is connected to wires buried under a pressure plate in the road.
Combat engineers placed the mock makeshift bombs, or improvised explosive devices, to show fellow leathernecks how to identify danger.
They call it “IED Lane.” The simple stretch of road near the new “Iraqi village” training ranges at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center here is a critical part of training before deploying to a combat zone. Roadside bombs, say Marine officials, are the biggest killers in Iraq, accounting for 70 percent to 72 percent of U.S. military combat casualties.
“The enemy adapted, and … their best opportunity now [to inflict casualties] is the remotely detonated improvised explosive device,” said Lt. Gen. John Sattler, who commands I Marine Expeditionary Force.
It’s a life-and-death game staying ahead of an adaptive enemy. Insurgents could set up a basic, single-round IED in five minutes, Sattler said.
The military, he said, is countering with a “holistic” approach that includes better individual protection, armored vehicles and revised tactics, techniques and procedures, as well as new jamming systems. IED Lane continually morphs, showing leathernecks the most current designs of IEDs and insurgent tactics.
“In the last week, those devices have already changed as the Marines have created new obstacles and new IEDs to train the Marines walking through it,” said Brig. Gen. Doug Stone, who runs Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training Command. “Orientation and understanding is one piece of it. Technology is the other, and there’s a lot of effort going on.”
Tires turn deadly
Stone joined Sattler in a walk-through of IED Lane on Nov. 14 to see how it has progressed.
Cpl. Scottie Carter, a combat engineer with Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, pointed to a curb. He picked up a piece of the curb and revealed a 155mm round encased in the concrete. “We’ve actually seen several of these in the Karma area around Fallujah,” he told the generals.
Discarded rubber tires might be common, but they are heavily scrutinized. Carter, 22, who will return to Iraq in January, showed how a bush covered a buried tire packed with 155mm artillery rounds, connected to an improvised antenna and two-way radio for remote detonation.
“If you saw a rubber tire, you obviously gave it a wide berth,” he said. However, he noted, insurgents have been placing secondary IEDs nearby to nab the force in the “kill zone.”
Vehicles are also constant concerns. Insurgents have turned cars, whether in working condition or broken down, into makeshift bombs. So Marines must quickly assess the threat. Should they help move the vehicle out of the way? Will it detonate, or is it really just broken down? Should they isolate the car and get an explosive ordnance disposal team to assess it?
Sattler recalled one case in which troops went to help a man whose car broke down at a checkpoint. “The guy went out and he was helping push it, and then all of the sudden the car got off,” he said. He suspects the owner didn’t know his car was outfitted with explosives, which killed a U.S. soldier and Iraqi soldiers.
“I hate to say it, but don’t trust anyone. … You want them to get away from the car. You’re more prone to help them out,” he said. But before they do, he’d prefer that engineers or EOD teams be brought in to be certain.
Lance Cpl. Ron Griffith, a 30-year-old combat engineer from Camp Pendleton, is telling anyone who’ll listen why they should never leave the slightest hint of trash behind, even in a combat zone. As Sattler and Stone looked on, Griffith explained how an empty box became a deadly bomb.
“What they would do is take our trash, stuff it with PE4 [explosives] and bury it back under the road,” he said. “That’s why I try to tell Marines you’ve got to police your own, make sure you don’t give anything to the enemy they could use against us.”
Ellie