Ohakea Armourer's Explosive Work in Afghanistan

Craig Harnett takes a GPS location reading before destroying a sub-munition on a local farm. WN-07-0137-03-tn.jpg.

Sergeant Craig Harnett has spent the past four months of a tour of duty recovering almost 1200 individual high explosive items in Afghanistan.

Sergeant Harnett, an armourer at Base Ohakea, is currently in Bamyan Province with 121 other NZDF personnel. He is a team leader for the New Zealand Explosive Ordinance Disposal (NZEOD). It is the responsibility of the NZEOD personnel to recover and destroy munitions including landmines, sub-munitions, mortars, rockets, artillery and bombs.

The majority of the items are found by local people while they plant crops or tend sheep, and they will often walk many kilometres to report their finds to Kiwi Base, as they know only too well the devastating effects of inadvertent detonation.

Sergeant Harnett says ridding the country of unexploded ordinance is a daunting task.

“Even though we’re the tenth rotation of NZDF personnel to Bamyan Province there are still huge quantities of munitions being discovered every day.

“The Russians and the Taliban blanketed this area with explosive items during times of conflict. It’s really sad to hear about children being killed while playing, and the Afghan people are desperate to make their villages safe. We educate them so they know not to handle the explosives themselves and to come and find us.

Sergeant Craig Harnett works to try and free a 107mm rocket protruding from a cliff face above a village. WN-07-0137-02-tn.jpg.

Seeing people with missing fingers and limbs is commonplace and just the other night two locals showed me their missing fingers and scars caused by landmines. Both had fragments still inside their legs and arms that you could feel under the skin. Every item we dispose of prevents someone getting hurt or killed.”

Sergeant Harnett finds his job in Afghanistan is always challenging, not only because of the huge number of explosives that can be found, but also in the way some of the items need to be recovered or destroyed.

“Two children had been killed by playing with a grenade at a local village and our team was called there to see what we could do to help improve the safety of the area.

“I was shown a 107mm high explosive rocket that had been fired into a cliff face above the village during fighting with the Taliban. The rocket had not exploded and was clearly visible protruding from the rocks. After abseiling to the location and seeing that the rocket was not going to budge I had to destroy it where it lay.

“That was one of the more difficult tasks I’ve been faced with, but the villagers were so pleased that it was gone.”

Sergeant Harnett’s tour of duty will end in October, and he is looking forward to returning to his wife and two children in Wanganui.