Air Force brings down the house

Photo By Spc. Richard Vogt | The water tower at Forward Operating Base Marez takes its final bow.  

MOSUL, IRAQ

05.02.2006

Courtesy Story

345th Public Affairs Detachment

MOSUL, Iraq - The Air Force made some noise at Forward Operating Base Marez April 28 with blasting caps and C-4.

The object was to drop an enormous, out-dated water tower that was an emblem of FOB Marez but also a nuisance. With the base expanding to accommodate more Soldiers and missions, it was decided that the tower had to go.

The only problem was that the job involved more than just pushing the tower over with a crane or backhoe. The project required a lot of planning and a detailed risk assessment. Major Shawn Thompson, S3 operations, for the 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron, described the risks.

"There are three different concerns with a blast like this," said Thompson, a native of Wolf City, Texas. "One is the overpressure from the shockwave itself. Second is hearing; you want to have proper hearing protection. Missile projectile fragmentation essentially is the third. The 800 foot cordon will take care of all of those with the exception of the fragmentation hazard, and we're putting up sandbags and T-walls around the charges, around the legs to mitigate the hazard as well."

"There are two main purposes to bring down the tower. One is that it is used as a reference point for insurgents. It can be seen from neighborhoods in Mosul. It is also an airfield obstruction."

"The tower hasn't been used in quite some time. We cut a hole in it to see how much water it was holding, to see how much stagnant water might be in there, and it's actually bone-dry. There's a little bit of debris in the bottom and some birds running around. So it's been in-operable for at least the last few years and it's got a few holes in it just from deterioration so it wouldn't be able to hold water even if you filled it and pressurized it."

Two sharp cracks let everyone know that something was happening. There was a split second between blasts because of the length of the detonation cord.

"We feel really good about this operation. It's an opportunity for the team to put into practice all of the training from demo courses and small shots that they've done to keep their qualifications."

"We want to make sure that no one even accidentally walks into the [blast area]. All stations are within line-of-sight of each other so no one could even sneak into the cordon. We sent a letter to the governor of Ninevah coordinating the removal of the tower and the response that we got back was that they had no concerns."

According to Thompson, the Iraqi government had a contract in 2004 but the contractors were unable to execute the order.

According to Thompson, his unit used worse-case scenarios and overlapping security measures in order to ensure that the blast went safely. There were berms built at the landing sight to prevent possible roll and a safety team established an 800 foot perimeter around the blast sight.

"I am the project manager for the blasting portion of the job," said Technical Sergeant David Haight, Shop Boss for the 557th Red Horse Squadron and native of Dundee, N.Y. "I am in charge of making sure that we have everything we need to do the job, from blasting caps and det cord to explosives to people to do the job. Planning for this operation was a huge undertaking. We are using ribbon charges to cut the legs out from under the tower. "

"I've been blasting for six-and-a-half years with Red Horse," he said.

"When you're blowing stuff up it's never run-of-the -mill. It's always different," he said as he smiled.

He said his favorite part of the job is 'the big boom at the end."

He explained the spreadsheet process to calculate the blast. For this one, he used a calculator and pencil and paper method.

Once the tower fell, the engineers used plasma cutters to dismantle the structure. A plasma cutter uses an electric arc and a blast of high-pressure air to cut steel. They projected total confidence that the shot would go well.

"Fire in the hole!" said Haight, then there was a loud boom! And the tower fell over.

"There was a lot of planning and time that went into this. I cannot even begin to estimate the amount of time that went into this."

• Date Taken: 05.02.2006
• Date Posted: 05.02.2006 09:41
• Story ID: 6213
• Location: MOSUL, IQ