Old fashioned

By lex, on November 24th, 2006

The mission of the infantry, the way I understand it, is to “close with the enemy by means of fire and maneuver to defeat or capture him, or to repel his assault by fire, close combat, and counterattack.” Which can be hard when an enemy who hides in plain sight usually has no intention of allowing himself to be positively identified, far less closed upon. In Iraq instead, he often chooses to wage his war at an anonymous distance via improvised explosive devices, IEDs.

And among the many unsung heroes overseas are the EOD technicians that walk towards the bombs, once they’ve been identified – all the while knowing that a triggerman may be lurking on a rooftop, behind a window or even in an onlooking crowd, hands thrust into his pants pockets and fingering his initiator – a cell phone maybe or a wireless phone – even a garage door opener.