Hazardous duty training feels like some warped summer camp. We eat terrible food at a long picnic table in a big room, we walk sweatily from one activity to another, we use outhouses and wear hiking boots. The rhythm of life feels very similar as well. The main difference, of course, is that instead of shuttling from the arts and crafts tent to canoeing to the campfire, we go from first aid to land mine spotting and back to first aid.Today I learned more than I ever wanted to know about land mines and IEDs. The main lesson? Almost any household item can be fashioned into some sort of explosive device with a bit of gunpowder and a basic understanding of electrics. The point of teaching us about specifics seems to be giving us an understanding of potential risks, not giving us the tools to do anything about them. There are some tricks that might help someone recognize a potential minefield, but if someone is sitting 500 yards away with a remote control ready to activate a buried IED, there's not much to do. It's all about avoidance.
On a brighter note, we also learned how to fashion stretchers out of almost anything, how to stop arterial bleeding and how to administer CPR. Tomorrow is all about broken bones--and guns. In 24 hours I will be able to distinguish an AK-47 from an M14, but I still won't have a cool lanyard to show off to Mom and Dad.
No comments:
Post a Comment