Army Bomb Disposal Colonel Resigns
The news that Colonel Bob Seddon of the RLC has resigned over fears that bomb disposal training could be compromised amid pressure to produce more counter IED operatives will undoubtedly affect morale. Even if you don’t subscribe to Michael Yon’s view that we are losing the war and take comfort from Dr Fox’s promise that Afghanistan is his first priority, the threat from IEDs is overwhelming. The death of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid who died in November diffusing his 65thbomb highlighted the bravery of the extraordinary person at Service Personnel who are called in once a suspect device is located. But we must not forget the ordinary soldiers from so many different regiments who have to locate these devices with vallons and the like. At the recent Inquest into the death of Sergeant Paul McAleese we learnt that clearance of the alleys of the Pharmacy Road was done by infantry soldiers; only when a device is located can they call out the ATO and IED team. It was Private Young who was operating the Vallon that day who was the first to die. He was aged 18. When Major Follett radioed for specialist assistance to retrieve Private Young’s body which was locatedby a secondsuspect device he was informed of a waiting time of around 2 hours. Little wonder that Sergeant McAleese took more immediate action, sacrificing his life.
The table of Soldiers lost in Afghanistan (see BBC website) shows just how many have been killed through explosions. Sergeant McAleese’s Regiment, 2ndBattalion Third Rifles lost three men in Sangin the month before his death. However the Panorama programme screened 24 May indicated that the MOD had not forecast the IED threat. It is of course now being catered for with the training up of more IED operators. Given that it is still the ordinary soliders who have to locate these devices and given problems such as lack of helicopters to transport the IED operators, only time will tell whether we can combat this viscous threat which has also taken the lives of 2,500 of the civilian population.
