Small-town guardsmen groomed to hunt bombs

[unhappycamper]

Small-town guardsmen groomed to hunt bombs
By Kevin Maurer and Mitch Weiss - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 13, 2009 21:18:23 EDT

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. — Staff Sgt. Jason Jones, the kind of soldier who stands ramrod straight even at ease, watched his men talk and joke around as they waited their turn to practice hunting for a buried bomb.

Shaded by towering pines and standing on red clay, the platoon of part-timers soon would be working the shoulders of desert highways, rooting through sand and mounds of garbage for improvised explosive devices, the No. 1 killer of American troops.

“If these guys think they are just in Mississippi, I don’t know if they are taking it that seriously,” said Jones, an Iraq veteran. “If you don’t pay attention here, what happens when you get to Iraq?”

With violence in Iraq at a five-year low, Jones said he understands why his platoon of combat engineers might not be as worried about their upcoming tour as they once might have been.

Once in country, though, the National Guardsmen who make up E Company — glassmakers, carpenters and diesel mechanics from the small North Carolina town of Hamlet — will be entrusted with fighting the weapons responsible for nearly half of the 4,245 soldiers killed and nearly two-thirds of the 31,000 troops wounded during the Iraq war.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_homefronthamlet_031309w/%2e



uhc comment: I guess they don't get the internets out there in Mississippi. Four thousand two hundred fifty eight American soldiers have been killed in Iraq.