Pictorial Essay Page 06
Submitted by Captain Bryan Smith
United States Marines
This is C Co, 1st CEB also with RCT-7. 1st Plt was with 1st Tank Bn when they encountered a minefield as they entered Baghdad. They fired a line charge, which is 1700lbs of C4 on a rope. The blast will clear a path 16m wide. At the time I was actually listening on the radio when they announced what they were going to do (you don't just fire a line charge without telling anyone) as we were approaching Baghdad about 3 miles to the south of them (there were only two approaches into Baghdad in RCT-7 zone). Luckily they did not mine our approach. Besides the picture being awesome, what is unusual about it is the fireball is very brief, so it is hard and rare to get such a good picture, plus they fired it on a road, which we never get to do. The vehicle closest to the fireball is AAV modified to fire the line charge (you can see the raised rocket arm). Combat engineers at their best.
Captain Bryan Smith and His Two Newly Promoted Master Sergeants
Capt Smith, MSgt Jungemann, MSgt Thielen
MSgt Jungemann, Capt Smith, MSgt Thielen
