80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops

[glatt]

we all know that IEDs are often triggered remotely by a wireless control, tw. Especially the roadside ones. But there are sometimes others that use a trip wire, mainly inside buildings, as Bruce already said.

See this discussion, for example.

While in Iraq (on dismounted infantry patrols) we would sometimes come across areas that we deemed suitable for someone to plant one of those horrible little mines in with a good tripwire.
Gentlemen, you will not use silly string when breaching a room or clearing a building, but when time is available to be careful, believe me it is very useful.
Case in point, my platoon was doing a patrol in an area of Bahgdad, clearing buildings for a convoy to move through a couple hours later. When we would enter a suspicious building (not that any of them weren't) we would sometimes spray the silly string in front of the doorway or around the building to check for tripwires. My commander was in the area one day and saw a yound specialist using the stuff. He threatened the young soldier with an article 15 for spraying flammable substances around, that was until the soldier pointed out the silly string magically floating in air just before a doorway. The silly string had landed on top of a trip wire and give us a heads up on it's location. You won't regularly notice fine fishing line run across the front of a doorway, unless something lets you know it's there.
NO you will not use silly string 24/7 in your AO to recognize ied threats, but when it saves the life of a young soldier (and maybe some higher command) it is a cheap investment.

Posted by: John | August 04, 2007 at 01:49 AM