Afghanistan: Wisconsin soldier invents device to foil bombs

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/126096618.html

..snip..

Forward Operating Base Pasab, Afghanistan - The Taliban will use just about anything to hide bombs, and a perfect spot is a culvert underneath a road.

Now many of the culverts near this base in Kandahar province are no longer prime bomb-hiding locations, thanks to the ingenuity of a Wisconsin soldier.

Cpl. Eric DeHart, 38, of Birnamwood worked as a senior designer for Wausau Homes before deciding to join the Army for the first time at the age of 36, losing 80 pounds in six months to enlist. When his Army Reserves unit - Wausau-based 428th Engineer Co. - arrived in southern Afghanistan last fall, his platoon leader asked him to solve the culvert problem.

An engineer by trade, DeHart began to think about the best way to make culverts safe from roadside bombs, and soon he came up with a solution, which isn't surprising for a guy motivated to drop so much weight in a short time to become a U.S. soldier.


..end..



Now if we could just end these immoral wars and bring these smart soldiers home.

[MineralMan]

Simple. Effective. They'll probably not use it.

Instead, they'll farm out a design project that will take years to complete, then pay billions for not having a solution.

[RC]

1. Why can't the y be removed, bomb inserted and then replaced?

Surly the bomb planters can't be that dumb?

[The Doctor.]

2. The learning curve alone is worth it.

Buying any kind of time saves lives.

Though I'm sure they're a little more difficult to circumvent than you might think.

[Scuba]

3. They're welded to the culvert.

[RC]

7. The culvert in this country is more often than not, made of concrete.

Sometimes they are square or rectangular, instead round.
Are they usually round and made of steel in Iraq?

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. The amount of time it would take to remove the device would

make that near to impossible, with regular patrols.

What would normally be a 5 or 10 minute job of planting the bomb would become a 2 hour job, and in that time they'd be spotted or reported.

[formercia]

4. If it saves one Life

It will have been worth the effort. Ask anyone who has lost someone to an IED.

[FormerDittoHead]

5. For others - it's a rebar cone that fits into a culvert (picture of a culvert)

Pardon me for not having taken civil engineering, but I had to find out what a "culvert" was:

[EFerrari]

8. Outstanding!