|
Devil Dog combat engineers make things go boom!
I think we all know somebody like this Marine. Heck, some of you could be this Marine. [Exerpted] Cpl. Michael R. Emans, a combat engineer assigned to 3rd Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, used just about every trick of the trade to open stubborn doors, gates and walls during an all out assault on the insurgents hiding in the city of Fallujah. During the initial phases of the assault, Emans got to try his hand at the combat aspect of his job. "I used to like blowing up ordinance, which is explosive already, and we just stack more explosives on top of it and blow it," said Emans, 22, a native of Bowling Green, Ohio. "I like it a lot better out here, running up to a door under fire, throwing a stick of C-4 on the door, yelling 'smoke' and the time on the fuse and then waiting for the explosion. You get to be so much closer (compared to a training situation) and you can feel the explosion. Destruction is very gratifying." Three and a half years ago, Emans approached a Marine Corps recruiter with one thing on his mind, combat engineering. "My dad was a combat engineer in the Marine Corps and I wanted to work with explosives," said Emans. "I walked into the recruiter's door and said I wanted to be a combat engineer. He told me that it wasn't guaranteed but I took the chance anyway." Now as a combat engineer, Emans considers himself a grunt with explosives, and his teammates appreciate the job that he does. "His job made it great, because he could set up a charge and blow a door so that we could all just flood into the building," Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Brennan, an assault man with 3rd platoon. "Plus it has a great shock effect on the enemy." Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-11-24 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=49649 |