An afternoon with special forces

Given the nature of our mission in the hospital, we see a quite a few injured people. Often they are locals or Afghan military, but sometimes they are US soldiers. One of the more active groups here on the FOB is special forces. They have the occasion, quite frequently, to visit the hospital with injured enemy or buddies and use our surgical services, typically in the middle of the night. So seeing these guys as often as we do, we get to know some of them pretty well.

Every now and then we are invited to go out with them and blow stuff up.

Nate and I pose for the camera before the action begins.

This is one of the trucks they drive and was the one I rode in this day. The truck is loaded with toys, both inside and out.

So, I really did not think that after going through med school, I'd ever have the chance to hold a block of C4 explosive, but here I am! They showed me how to cut a wedge out of the end, embed detonation wire, and tape it up for use.

The guys are explaining how to tie the ring of detonation wire so that all 6 of our blocks of C4 will explode simultaneously.

Robyn and Derek are working on their blocks.

Our work is surveyed by our "instructor" for the day.

The rest of the group also checks over the placement of the blocks. As you can see, the SF guys can pretty much wear what they want, so they usually wear civilian clothes.

Not to waste any explosive, 3 pounds of C4 is molded into a shape charge and placed in front of this iron plate. The iron plate is about 1 cm thick. This charge is linked to the other 6 blocks, giving us about 12 pounds of C4!

Rich calls to the command post to inform them of our impending explosion. The people in charge probably wouldn't appreciate any large unannounced blasts. We set the fuse, which ignites the detonation cord. Since the det cord burns at a controlled rate, we have a set number of minutes to drive to our observation point.

After we blow a hole in the side of the mountain, we return to check the damage.







I would say the shape charge did its job.

But the fun is not over quite yet. I am holding a grenade I am about to throw over the side of the hill. Like I said, all kinds of toys in the trucks...

Get down! You can see the grenade over my head as I am falling to the ground.




After all the festivities, we join the guys back at their "SF compound" and are treated to a cook out. They built this bar area for themselves in their spare time.

Usually on Sunday nights they have one of these get togethers and light up the grill. You can pretty much see all the people who go around the base in civilian clothes and beards---SF, CIA, and FBI.

The best part is just getting to eat somewhere besides the dining facility once in a while!

"Small arms range---going hot"

Before I get to the small arms range, I would like to take one moment to try to explain how dark it is here at night. You see, because of the maniacs up in the caves nearby, we can't have any lights on at night here. We all walk around using our red, green, or blue lights at night to see. White lights aren't allowed, as they can be seen from too far away. Now this makes for some excellent stargazing, just look up and you can see shooting stars, satellites, and the Milky Way galaxy clearly. However, it can be hazardous at times. This is the view I see when I step out of the hospital at night. The other night, while not using my light and thinking I knew where I was, I walked right into a tree. Not a little branch on my shoulder or something, I walked straight into the trunk! I felt real smart...turned on my light after that.

Robyn is sporting her new Navy PT attire she bought. She likes wearing the clothing of various services and confusing everyone. We let her get away with it and call her our mascot.

On this day we had some fun away from the hospital. The Army, unlike the Air Force, believes that if you are carrying around weapons, you are doing it for a purpose, and should the opportunity arise, you better be able to use that weapon. So every 2 or 3 weeks, you visit the firing range.

The range has 10 firing stations. The sandbags are located 25 meters from the targets.

Placed on each target is a sheet of paper with a silhouette of a person. That is the little black spot in the middle of the papers hanging. This represents a person 300 meters away.

Before we start, our group loads up about 2000 rounds of ammo.

I'm ready to shoot something! A loud voice transmits over the base intercom: "Attention on the FOB, small arms range--going hot." This lets people know why there are machine guns firing like crazy at the perimeter of the base.

With the barrels resting on the sandbags, we are firing at our targets with the lowest possible profile.
I look through the site, breathe in, breathe out, and squeeze slowly. This minimizes how much you move your weapon and increases accuracy.

My friend to my right let me know afterward that it was hard for him to concentrate on his target because my M-16 was ejecting shell casings all over him. Ha.

After going through several rounds of shooting, checking target, adjusting site, and shooting again, the weapon becomes "zeroed" and we begin to see better and better results on target.

My target. You can see my first 3 attempts (which were 3 shots each) low and to the right. My next 2 attempts were better, but not perfect. Unfortunately, at this point a trauma alert was heard over the loud speaker, so essential medical personnel had to go back to the hospital. We had to miss the majority of shooting, and getting to shoot the M-16 in burst mode. But they promised me we could come back soon. I will hold them to it!

Seeya next post.