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Industry: Email Alert RSS Feed74th Engineer Team - Dive - Army Diver Missions in Iraq
Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers, July-Sept, 2003 by P.J. Inskeep
After arriving in Kuwait on 14 April 2003, the 74th Engineer Team (Dive) met up with the 5th Engineer Battalion on 18 April at the Taji Airfield on the north side of Baghdad.
22-26 April
The team was notified of a river reconnaissance mission on the Tigris River in the vicinity of the city of Tikrit. Two members of the team convoyed to Tikrit with the command element of the 74th Engineer Company (Assault Float Bridge[AFB]), where they linked up with personnel from the 130th Engineer Brigade and the 299th Engineer Battalion and a reconnaissance team from the 814th Engineer Company (AFB). The initial assessment of the damage that two 500-pound bombs had created was that the bridge was blown in two different places, causing obvious structural damage. The current was so strong that we wondered if we could even get a diver down to the bottom. We took the initial data back to the 299th's tactical operations center (TOC), where the commander of the 130th began to devise a plan to fix the bridge. The 74th Engineer Company commander called back to Taji Airfield to prepare the rest of the team for a convoy to Tikrit.
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A topographic detachment at 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, headquarters provided the imagery we needed to complete a hydrographic survey. Back at the site, we collected near-shore and far-shore data using our Trimble TSC1[TM] data collector and took photographs to analyze the best method for clearing a lane for the bridge.
Using the side-scan sonar, we conducted a survey of the bottom of the river. We could see that there were no major obstacles in the middle of the river, but there were about 20 large trees and numerous small bushes in the way of the projected path of the bridge on the far shore. Also, there were two I beams under the surface of the water on the near shore where the bridge boats were being launched. The other boat left to conduct a hydrographic survey of the bridge site using the Global Positioning System (GPS), a high-precision depth finder, and Trimble software to collect the river depth data. After all the data was collected, we rendered the survey for the bridge companies using Terramodel[TM] software.
Meanwhile, other divers set up a surface-supplied station, which consisted of SuperLite (SL) 17K helmets, a communications box, air supply hoses, and a high-/low-pressure air system. Then, we inspected everything beneath the water and measured the diameters of the trees at their base to start a demolitions plan. We found the water to be about 10 feet at the deepest spot. After assessing the situation, we decided to let surface swimmers measure the diameters of the trees off of breath holds.
While this was taking place on the far shore, we conducted a reconnaissance of the two I beams under the surface by measuring the beams that were above the water's surface. From this, we developed a demolitions plan. We received permission from higher headquarters to set off the demolitions the next morning. One group was to remove the trees from the far shore and another would remove the two I beams. They rehearsed and planned three separate shots.
Two divers in scuba gear placed the charges. The divers had zero visibility in the water and were working against a strong current. The only sense they could use to emplace the demolitions was touch. Each diver emplaced the demolitions on the downstream side of the tree. The demolitions were then held in place by 550 cord (parachute cord), and we had detonation cord already attached to the charge and precut to 15 feet.
Once the demolitions were set, the detonation cord was tied to the tree above the water until the charges were correctly placed. Then surface swimmers ran a ring main to all the charges and tied them in, and we connected the modern detonation initiator (MDI) and ran it to the far shore for detonation. At the same time, we made sure the military police had cleared the bridge. After our first blast went off successfully, we emplaced the next round of charges and set up shearing charges to cut some I beams that had ruined the hull of a bridge boat the day before. The two sites blew simultaneously. The third blast was a single tree. Once the water was cleared, we helped pull the trees out.
27 April
The bridge companies wanted us to blow the rest of the little brush and cut out five light poles. We performed a reconnaissance, came up with a plan, and prepped the demolitions for it. The demolitions had to be in early that day so the bridge companies could rehearse their operations, so we emplaced them and by 0700 were prepared to blow.
One of the divers took on the task of removing the five poles. Having dived in fast current before, he thought it would be best to see if demolitions could be placed at the base of the poles to ensure that they were sheered completely and no longer posed a navigational hazard to the bridge boat operation. A diver went in the water off the Zodiac[R] inflatable boat moored to a pole. The current was too strong to even get to the pole safely. The diver tried to slide the demolitions down the pole from the boat. However, weeds and brush had been pinned to the pole by the current, which prevented the demolitions from sliding to the base. We decided to try to put another diver in on the pole so he could shimmy down it. Again the current was too strong, and he could not reach the bottom.
