Lt. Col. Chris Lozano, USMC

Interviews

U.S. Troops Surrounded by Minefields
Fri Mar 22, 2:07 PM ET
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - Just off the airstrip and main roads traveled by American soldiers and vehicles lie tens of thousands of silent killers waiting for a single misstep.

AP Photo The U.S. base at Bagram, just north of Kabul, is home to some 6,000 coalition soldiers, who eat, work and sleep in the muddy fields around the runway and bombed out hangars. It is also one of the most heavily mined areas in the world.

Nearly a quarter-century of fighting has left Bagram littered with mines and unexploded ordnance, from the tiny, flesh-shredding toe-popper land mines to rusting 500-pound Soviet bombs sticking out of the fields just beyond the runway.

"Every inch of this ground is a potentially hazardous area," said Marine reservist Maj. Charles C. Lozano, the officer in charge of mine clearing operations. "It's not just mines, it's also the unexploded bombs, missiles, mortars, hand grenades, and all of it has to be dealt with. All of it poses a danger."

Two minesweepers — an American and a Briton — and an Afghan guard have been injured and two Afghans killed by mines since the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division took over Bagram in November, said Dr. Gerard P. Curran, an army emergency medicine specialist from Kings Park, N.Y.

Other cases have probably gone unreported because Afghan civilians usually are treated off the base, Lozano said.

"I wouldn't go off the roads, I'll say that," said Curran of the 261st Medical Support Battalion, 44th Medical Brigade out of Fort Bragg, N.C. "The whole place is extremely dangerous ... I'm not going to be bringing my family back here with the kids to vacation at Bagram."

Lozano, a barrel-chested 42-year-old who is a corporate lawyer from St. Louis, has been in the Marines for 20 years and a mine clearing expert for six. He estimated the number of mines and unexploded ordnance on base in the tens of thousands.

In some areas, his teams have found two to three mines per square yard, and Lozano said it would take two years to clear the entire base, though the Army has no plans to even attempt that.

Lozano and his men concentrate on clearing the areas that American and coalition forces need to operate.

"We would never put our soldiers in a situation that would intentionally be dangerous," he said. "Because of that, nothing gets done on this base until we have reduced the mine threat."

Specially trained American, Norwegian, Bosnian and Polish soldiers and civilians are clearing the mines, but no amount of training can make the work routine.

"My friends think I'm crazy," said Pvt. Ole, a Norwegian mine clearer who spoke on condition his last name not be used. "But I think with experience you get a different perspective. You know it is dangerous, but you know how to handle it."

The mines at Bagram and in the surrounding countryside were decades in the making. The Soviets left acres of mines around the base when they withdrew from the country in 1989. And the base was on the front lines of fighting between the northern alliance and Taliban, with each side laying their own mines.

More recently, the area was heavily bombed by the Americans targeting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Unexploded cluster bombs litter many of the fields.

"This is the most challenging thing I've ever done because this is the real deal, and if we don't do our job out here people will die," said Lozano, stepping confidently through a cleared field. "Failure is not an option."

He said the first step is intelligence. He spends many of his days talking to Afghan commanders to learn which areas are most heavily mined. But the information is not always reliable.

"We have found mines even in the living areas in places we were told were not mined," Lozano said.

There's more than one way to clear a minefield, he said, but often the first pass is made by the Norwegian soldiers. They gingerly examine the area wearing weight dispersion boots — giant rectangular air shoes that theoretically won't set off a mine.

When the Norwegians find particularly volatile explosives, they take them out using high-caliber guns or with a small robot.

Next, an armored bulldozer flails the ground with metal chains to detonate any remaining mines. Finally, bomb-sniffing dogs go over the turf.

"The dogs are my most accurate means of proofing a mine field," Lozano said. "They provide an incredible capability because they can do what humans and machines can't. They can smell explosives."

The mine clearers also help educate soldiers.

"It's always on my mind," said Lance Cpl. Jeremy Johnson, 19, from Springfield, Ill., a member of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. "Everywhere you walk, I mean, you never know. Anything can jump out and get you."

Lozano says he likes hearing that kind of talk, because it means the soldiers are paying attention.

"If I can keep one less kid from blowing off a leg or dying than I feel great," he said.