In Country With Our Awesome Troops

KIRKUK, Iraq — Wiping the remaining traces of sleep from their eyes, the last few combat engineers emerge from their tents early Saturday morning and begin the walk to their vehicles. Still yawning, they start putting on their equipment.
For the 1st Platoon, A Company, 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 25th Infantry Division combat engineers this was their second route reconnaissance in less than 12 hours. Not taking anything for granted, they readied themselves, knowing their mission was to find improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and clear the routes for their fellow Soldiers to use later.
After checking their vehicles and equipment, the engineers receive their patrol brief. Ten minutes later they mount up, listening to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n’ Roses, readying themselves for the days work.
“I actually get more scared during hoaxes,” said Pfc. Chris Bateman, vehicle driver. “Just every little crack in the road can get your nerves going. When you do actually find a possible IED, you just get that hyped-up feeling.”
Staff Sgt. Michael Bailey-McGuire, team leader, echoed Bateman’s apprehension, “I couldn’t even tell you what is going through my mind when I find an IED. You just do what you have to.”
“STOP! STOP! STOP!,” blares over the radio handset. Someone thinks he has found an IED. The convoy waits several tension-filled minutes. Over the radio, someone announces it was just a false alarm.
“Just about everyone in the platoon wears a patch saying ‘IED Hunters,’” said Bailey-McGuire, a native of Mcloud, Okla. “So far I have found two, so I wear these X marks on my gear. My gunner found the first one in the entire battalion.”
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, the day is a boring one for the combat engineers. The guarded Soldiers discovered the one false alarm, but otherwise found only burning oil fields while driving down the roads of Kirkuk.
“I like (my job),” said Bateman, a native of North Salt Lake City, Utah. “People ask me all the time how I do my job. I don’t mind it. I do know that I couldn’t sit behind a desk. I would get stir crazy. Doing this job, I am going out of the wire every single day and it is making the deployment go that much faster.”
After several hours the platoon turns around, headed back home.
Since these Soldiers began scanning the roads of Kirkuk two months ago, they have found 19 IEDs.
“It comes and goes,” said Bailey-McGuire. “There will be a stretch of days that we don’t find a single IED and then there will be stretches when we find them every day. The most we have found in one mission is six.”
The combat engineers jump down from their vehicles. It’s early afternoon and their mission is over. For now, the only thing on their mind is lunch and sleep. Its time to recharge their batteries, because tomorrow they know they’ll be back out clearing more roads.