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We were running support for a live fire assault on a bunker complex on Bragg off All-American DZ.
Among the issues for the teams to resolve was how to breach a triple standard concertina fence.
They had Bangalores available.
At the end of the problem, they were to destroy a bunker containing an WMD threat. Due to time constraints, we had emplaced the demo, all they had to do was to tie in.
Several teams had executed the mission pretty cleanly.
Then the problem team showed up. I could tell this, because on their movement to the breach point, they were still arguing among themselves.
I noted that the Engineer was carrying seven sections of Bangalore, 100 mph taped together like a bundle of dynamite sticks, but believed that he had done that to make it easier for the team to transport.
They reached the breach point, and the Engineer went forward with a couple of guys to emplace the Bangalore.
The team was pretty close to the point, but it looked to be safe enough.
The countdown ensued, and a very large explosion went off, showering the team with dirt and pieces of blasted concertina.
The Team Sergeant took the opportunity to counsel the Engineer on his knowledge and application of a Bangalore torpedo. It turned out that he had just shoved the bundle of seven sections into the wire and initiated the firing system.
The counseling continued as they cleared the objective.
The Engineer finally reached the WMD bunker and tied in a suprisingly short firing system, and the team was in the process of moving off the objective when the bunker went up.
Since this was the last hit, we had decided to dispose of the remaining demo and the bunker by emplacing a non-standard charge. This was composed of a 55 gallon drum of thickened gasoline, placed upright, with a 40 lb. shaped charge placed underneath it, inverted (liner up). There may have been some other goodies and a large quantity of C-4 in there as well.
In any event, when the charge went off with a massive shock wave, the team was about 100 meters away, and the explosion lifted the roof off of the bunker and a large rolling fireball climbed about 100 meters into the sky with a beautiful mushroom shaped cloud around it, and pieces of debris (some flaming) started landing around them. The whole thing just kind of hung there (except for the debris) and we all stood in awe admiring it.
Well, except for the team, which had picked up the pace of their departure significantly.
And especially the Team Sergeant, who had been in the back of the movement formation, and the Engineer, who had been toward the front, and was trying to stay ahead of the TS, who by the tone of his voice, was not amused.
It seems that he thought that the Engineer had rigged this evil thing and after the Bangalore incident, was offering to teach him some new hand to hand combat techniques.
I have never seen a man with a ruck run so fast before. I am not sure if he waited for the team at the LZ, or just ran back to the team room.
Fun with demo!
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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