1. AFGHANISTAN
REVEILLE 16
Lieutenant Richard Brickacek shows me a
video from his time in Afghanistan and,
without really knowing what to expect, I sit
down eagerly. It’s somewhat of a snapshot
of his time there and was spliced together by
another member of his team. Essentially it’s
a video of numerous explosions, one after
another.
The explosions are so powerful they send
enormous plumes of dust into the air, shaking
the solid vehicles in which the soldiers sit. In
many cases their Australian designed and built
Bushmasters are close enough to be splattered
with dirt, dust and other debris, and in one
case a local man’s house explodes; there was an
IED inside his home.
Brickacek is a Navy Clearance Diver, which
may sound odd for someone who recently
returned from a deployment to the arid
terrain of Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province,
but he is highly trained in explosive ordnance
disposal (EOD). “Clearance Divers are EOD
specialists,” he explains. “We deal with
explosives above and below the water, as well
as Improvised Explosive Devices. We’ve got
to know how to do it on land before we can
do it underwater, hence we’re used for both
roles.”
In essence an improvised explosive device
(IED) is a roadside bomb often used in
unconventional warfare and acts of terrorism.
IEDs are one of the greatest dangers to troops
and civilians in conflict-ridden Afghanistan.
They are the main weapon deployed by the
Taliban and have also been used extensively
in Iraq. About half of Australian fatalities
in the region have been due to an IED,
but Brickacek explains that the Australians
remain focused on making a difference to the
people of Afghanistan. “They see that you’re
helping them,” insists Brickacek.
He may have spent much of his career
underwater, but that was far from Brickacek’s
reality in Afghanistan, a land of extremes. It’s
either awfully hot or awfully cold and, while he
explains that these extremes took a while to get
used to, he speaks fondly of the place he called
home during his nine-month deployment.
A NAVY CLEARANCE
DIVER IN AN ARID
TERRAIN
Alexandra Gatfield discovers why an explosive ordnance disposal expert is just the right
person to rid you of the Taliban’s deadly IEDs.
Disarming an IED in Uruzgan
Province