Missouri Engineers deploy cutting edge technology in Afghanistan

By: Sgt. Jon E. Dougherty
Public Affairs NCO, 203rd Engineer Battalion


FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan - A beaming Michael Woodgerd looked on as the Missouri National Guardsmen of 1st Platoon, 1141st Engineer Company (Sappers) prepared to move out.

Woodgerd, a former Army officer who spent more than 20 years in uniform, has seen plenty of route clearance patrols prepare for missions during the more than 19 months he has been in Afghanistan.

But on this January morning, as crews prepared their vehicles and weapons in the pre-dawn darkness for the coming mission, Woodgerd had a special reason for seeing the crews off.

They were preparing to deploy an innovation that he and his team of researchers had spent a year-and-a-half developing and getting approved - an innovation born of the necessity to save lives.

***

In the fall of 2008, Woodgerd, an operations research systems analyst contractor, was deeply moved by the experience of a friend who still wears the uniform. That friend, an Army explosives ordnance disposal soldier, had lost one of his own on a recent mission. The soldier, an Army staff sergeant, was killed by an improvised explosive device that had been planted by insurgents in a culvert beneath a road.

"This started in August 2008," Woodgerd said. "I had just come off the range with some EOD soldiers - I was friends with a lot of them - and we had just lost an EOD team sergeant to an IED planted in a culvert. A lot of us were pretty into doing something about it."

Shortly thereafter, a "Frag-O" - or fragmentation order - was issued by Combined Joint Task Force headquarters "that told everyone to implement culvert protection," Woodgerd said, adding that during his initial "train-up" for his current contracting job he noticed some culvert barrier designs had already been developed for use in Iraq.

Woodgerd went to his bosses and implored them to "sit down and work on some designs" with him for new culvert denial systems. The result was a concept known as the "Salerno Box."

"We quickly made a proposal on a couple of prototypes from a couple of pictures we'd seen - [the Salerno Boxes] are a variant, though substantial, of someone else's idea out of Iraq," he said. "This variant has been designed specifically for Afghanistan."
Woodgerd said the design of the boxes had to meet certain criteria.

"First off, they had to stop the enemy from putting explosives into the culverts," he explained. "That's why they are so deep and have such stand-off; [their design makes it] extremely difficult for them to get into the culvert."

He also emphasized that "water flow is vitally important" to locals trying to raise crops in this arid land, Woodgerd said, noting that any workable box design had to ensure uninhibited water flow.

"It was extremely important for us to make that point to the locals that when we install them we aren't trying to disrupt that flow," he said.

***

Soldiers, sailors and Marines clad in winter physical training gear jogged rhythmically on the blacktop service road next to the white gravel parking area where 1st Platoon kept their mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles. The low roar of the vehicles permeated the quiet pre-dawn serenity as, one by one, they moved out on cue from 1st Lt. Travis Miller, the platoon leader who would oversee the historic deployment of the first Salerno Boxes.

In the lumbering Buffalo, a large vehicle used to "interrogate," or dig up, suspected IED sites, Capt. Bryan Sayer, 1141st company commander, strapped on his radio headset and seatbelt. He and Woodgerd had been collaborating for weeks in anticipation of this day, both equally optimistic that the concept would prove invaluable to protecting lives and denying the enemy another means to strike.

"Leader to all elements, let's Charlie Mike," Miller announced over the air, his signal for the convoy to begin moving out of the gate and toward a culvert pre-selected for the Salerno Box trial.

***

A short while later, the convoy reached the culvert that had been pre-selected for the first two boxes and began setting up. After assessing both ends of the culvert, Sayer, Miller and their engineers discussed the best course of action necessary to ensure the boxes functioned as designed.

Since no two culverts were the same - and since this was the first time the boxes were being deployed for real - the officers and their men quickly realized it would take some trial and error in order to get them positioned correctly.

The basic plan involved using a backhoe and shovels to dig out an area of dirt at the base of each culvert entrance so the Salerno Boxes would fit flush against them. And because the streams leading to the culvert contained water, it would be even more challenging to level the ground below the boxes because it wasn't solid.

It would also take some effort to convince the local population that the boxes were not being deployed protect them, not hurt them. Shortly after crews began working to install the first box, Sayer and Miller got their first opportunity to explain what they were doing to the elder of a nearby village who ventured out to see what the commotion was all about.

The officers, who addressed the elder through an Afghan interpreter working with the U.S. Army, spent several minutes explaining the operation and its intentions. The elder listened intently, pausing occasionally to glance over at the work in progress. If the boxes did not work as planned, the officers said, they would be removed. And if any damages occurred to the surrounding farmland, the U.S. would make good on those damages.

Satisfied, the elder ventured closer to the work site so he could get a better view. As he moved in with the officers and interpreter in tow, scores of Afghan men and boys emerged from nearby qalats - the home of either a single generation, or multiple generations, of a family - to join him. Like the elder, they were intensely curious about the work taking place.

Initially they established a perimeter about 30 yards away from the culvert and roadway. About 40 Afghans watched the engineers work with great interest, talking and gesturing excitedly amongst each other.

As the work continued, the crowd closed in even further. Afghan men and boys who had gathered to watch the operation had completely integrated with the American engineers. Mindful of the moving machinery, they mixed unencumbered with the crew, watching intently and talking excitedly among themselves.

As with the first box, crews had some trouble leveling the ground for the second box to fit properly. After several attempts using the backhoe, one Afghan man - realizing what the Soldiers were attempting to do - grabbed a shovel, shed his sandals and jumped into the hole which was filled with water that came up past the man's ankles.

For several seconds the man used the shovel to move mud and dirt, moving it from side to side as the engineer crew and the rest of the Afghan nationals looked on. When he was finished, he got out of hole and motioned for the engineers to lower the box.

It fit perfectly.

"Amazing," Miller commented. "That's what I'm talking about."

Miller asked his men to produce a "First Strike" portable meal and two sodas, which he gave to the Afghan man as compensation for his work. Through the interpreter, Miller thanked him for his efforts and said the meal was an expression of his gratitude.

***

A final check of the boxes to ensure that they were properly placed and that water was indeed still flowing freely, and Miller ordered his men to mount up for the return trip to Salerno. The entire operation had taken just over four hours and by any measurement it was a success.

As the Americans climbed aboard their vehicles the Afghan crowd largely dispersed, though some of the older men remained to examine the work performed by the Bloodhounds, the nickname for the 1141st Engineers.

The children, as they so often do, followed the GIs, hoping to talk them out of one last soda, one last pen, one last bottle of water.

Back at the base, Woodgerd was ecstatic the mission went so well and the first boxes were finally in place. He was also optimistic about the capabilities the boxes can provide U.S., NATO and Afghan forces in the future.

"The Salerno Box gives us greater tactical flexibility," Woodgerd said. "You can go out, surge and drop it for quick coverage."

Miller added that the boxes would deny insurgents the ability to use the same unprotected culverts over and over again - a common practice when selecting areas to implant IEDs.

"Instead of taking the time to re-emplace IEDs in the culvert, they are using previous blast holes because it's easier digging," Miller said.

He said a recent IED detonation against one of his vehicles came from a culvert-emplaced device - one that had "most likely" been planted in a previous blast hole.

"As they repair roads, we want to make sure that in the future we can drop these boxes in over the culverts and keep them from messing with them," he said.

***

Reflecting on the amount of time it took to get the project underway, Woodgerd said he was very grateful to Sayer, whom he said "stepped up" to take on the project.

"He came to me after hearing a briefing and said, 'Hey, we're engineers, we'll put these in.' And so it's really taken off since [he] got involved," he said.

A year from now, Woodgerd hopes deployment of the boxes will be much more widespread.

"I am hoping that as new roads are being built these will be included in that construction," he said, adding that other units - given the boxes - would be also able to deploy them in much the same way as the 1141st.

So far, said the armor officer-turned operational analyst, none of the various barriers in use - in addition to the boxes - "has been breached."

"[The enemy] is seeing them and they are moving on to places where there are no obstacles," he said, noting their simple design makes them as effective as they are easy to build and emplace.

Woodgerd also had high praise for the 1141st.

"These guys made a commitment to this project and their 'can-do' attitude was apparent," he said. "As I watched them come get [the test boxes], they were just knocking it out and getting it done, moving them around. A piece of cake."

Miller said he believes widespread use of the boxes - and their protective qualities - will be widely received by the local population.

"The civilians want to be able to use their roads," he said. "It's no different than in the U.S., where we get annoyed with road construction that goes on for a year or more. But once it's done and there are no more potholes in the road, you love it. So really, for their economy, it's a lot easier for them, especially when you're talking about moving the large transport trucks."

When main roads are out, such as when roads are damaged by culvert-born IEDs, that forces the local population - and the U.S. route clearance patrols - off into dirt bypasses, where it is easier to bury and hide explosives, Miller said.

In the long run, Woodgerd says he believes the boxes will prove to be every bit the deterrents they are advertised to be. And that, he points out, will translate into fewer lives lost - both for American service personnel and the Afghan population.

"If we can keep our guys from looking into the mouth of the dragon" - a reference to the practice of soldiers having to dismount their armored vehicles to physically look into culverts to clear them of IEDs - "the safer we can keep them," he said.