Re: [sg] platoon stuff and combat engineers

"You're the new guy right?  Okay, forget what they taught you in school
about clearing mine... This is how we really do it."

*sticks his fingers in his ears and then shuffles forward, stomping down
with one foot in an arc in front of him, the stepping forward with the
other and stomping out another arc*

"So when we head out there, we'll give you an opportunity to put that
technique into action, alrighty?"

I imagine that would weed out those too stupid to be worth working
side-by-side on explosives with, wouldn't it?

--Flak Magnet

On Wed, 2002-06-19 at 14:48, K.H.Ranitzsch wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
> > --- KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wrote:
> > > > Your population gets a lot of practice breaching  minefields in
> everyday life?
> > >
> > > Think of a place like Afghanistan or Mocambique after decades of
civil
> war and generous mine-laying and you see it could
> > > happen.
> >
> > Nichts nien.  Civvies stay the hell away from mines--they aren't
stupid.
> >
> > Hell, even engineers are far more likely to blow in place than lift.
> 
> The original point was breaching minefields - precise method not
specified.
> 
> > > In Hamburg, every few months a dud bomb from WWII is
> > > found and defused - more than half a century after the last one
fell.
> >
> > Defused by professional explosive ordnance disposal technicians,
yes?
> 
> Certainly.
> 
> But I guess that we have somewhat more of them than the average US
city,
> especially in that they are trained to deal with WWII ordnance. Though
there
> are now fewer of them than in, say, the 1950's. And due to the
location the
> bombs may be in, blowing them up in place is often not an option. They
have
> to be defused, even if the fuses are rusty or the bombs leak
explosive.
> When I went to school in the early 1960's, we were taught to recognize
> ordnance, not !!!!! to handle it and to inform the police.
> 
> Maybe I exaggerated my original statement about everyday mine
breaching, but
> in a mine-ridden country, the population will know better how to deal
with
> the risks and there will be more trained disposal personnel.
> 
> BTW, from some of the documentaries I have seen on the subject,
third-world
> mine clearance workers often get pretty basic training and equipment
for the
> job.
> 
> Greetings
> Karl Heinz
> 
> 
-- 

--Flak Magnet
Hive Fleet Jaegernaught