Armament Training Girl Power!
By Kate Kettle
LAC Garvey about to ‘Det up’
Imagine this. You’re a real green newbie, just two weeks off your junior course, when you get lumped with 20-odd smelly males, in a house miles from any decent shops, no internet access or cell-phone coverage, for an entire week. Any upmarket Auckland woman would be having fits.
Fortunately, I’m a Westie and a gunny, so this week was to be the highlight of my new posting. We departed Base Auckland on Sunday, 7 September 2008, and headed for Kaipara Domestic – armed with our Chef (who made fantastic meals), food, gear, and more explosives than you could shake a stick at. After unloading it all and double-checking we had everything we needed, it was boots off and feet up to discuss our plans for the week.
Monday kicked off with the sky painted grey and a definite chill in the air. After doing our daily vehicle inspections and organising what gear was going in which vehicle, we all piled in and drove out to the range. Our purpose was to clear out the main bombing sites of any large bomb fragments, old practice bombs, and to mark any unexploded 20mm HE rounds for disposal. That morning was one of many times during the week that I wished I’d ordered my sand goggles earlier! The wind was howling – worse than Wellington on a bad day – whipping the sand up and attempting to send me flying. Not only that, the clouds decided to dump several loads of rain on us.
After returning to Domestic for lunch, dry clothes and more explosives, we split up into several groups – each including a qualified EOD operator. Back on the range, the sun was now shining brilliantly so we proceeded to set about destroying life-expired pyrotechnics. KC25 marine markers, day/night signals, smoke grenades and thunder-flashes, were all duly dealt to that afternoon.
Rocket Motors firing
Ready to return, my team also had the misfortune to find the only sink-hole in the area as we left our demolitions area. From driving happily forward to sunk in up to the sideboards, happened in a matter of seconds, but recovery by some serious digging (go the W/O!) and a tow from the UNIMOG, took nearly an hour and a half. Dinner was hugely appreciated by the starving workers that night, after a late return from the range.
We were also joined by the No. 6 Squadron gunnies, who were quickly filled-in on our adventures that day and the tempestuous state of the weather.
Tuesday stumbled in. Again, the sky was grey and miserable, with the intentions of ruining our day with heavy showers. However, rain, high winds and too much sand in the air, still can’t ruin an armourer’s day if it involves destroying something with plenty of explosives! Further EOD and demolitions training was conducted, this time under a different EOD operator.
As a newbie, it was great to be allowed not only to make up the charges, but also to put the detonators on and then set the charge off. We mostly disposed of further life-ex pyrotechnics, along with several old Skyhawk-era rocket motors. The motors, designed to propel a rocket to Mach 2, make a pretty impressive and slightly deafening noise when they’re let off! The day was eventually brought to a close with the destruction of 2.75in HE rocket warheads, which were equally as impressive as the rocket motors.
The No. 6 Squadron guys unfortunately had to leave that night and return to Whenuapai, although having the re-exposure to demolitions and EOD was not only a bonus for them, but a short break from the routine of Squadron work.
Pyrotechnics
Wednesday promised a sunny day, yet delivered more skin-saturating showers and strong winds. We proceeded to our demolitions area and set up for the pending MSS display that afternoon. We had approximately 40 MSS personnel, including the CO MWG and OC MSS AK, turn up to view our ‘small’ display. Even the Chef eagerly came along for a look!
To kick the afternoon off, we started with our smaller charges and worked our way up – always save the best till last. First was the final disposal of some flare blocks – the last of the rocket motors and the warheads – using Semtex plastic explosive, to demonstrate how we dispose of old explosive stock. The potential danger of a fully prepared practice bomb was also demonstrated using Power gel. The result was one totally destroyed practice bomb and a few shocked faces.
After that, we demonstrated what a letter bomb would do to a work-desk, using Detasheet – a common sheet explosive misused for this purpose. The power of shape charges was shown using a Hayrick charge on sand-filled 20mm ammo tins, and a Beehive charge on an old engine block. We also set up Blade cutting charges on empty gas cylinders, and several large logs over a Bangalore torpedo. If you’ve seen Saving Private Ryan, you’d know what I mean. It’s basically a bunch of tubes jammed full of explosive, which are then connected together to clear obstacles, such as barbed wire. And finally, a 25kg bag of ANFO was placed under a not-so-small sand hill.
We set all this off to plenty of ‘oohs’, ‘aahs’ and ‘other’ comments and expressions. The area was then cleared, for closer inspection by our guests. The mangled metal legs of the desk were the only remaining evidence that one had previously existed in the area. Chunks of wood were littered everywhere from the destructive Bangalore torpedo, the sand-dune was levelled flat, and the engine block had a hole punched through it, completely wrecking it. The Hayrick managed to flatten and render unserviceable the three ammo tins it had been sitting above, while the Blade cutting charge had cut through the gas cylinders with ease.
But of course, the best was saved till last. We vacated everyone from the area up to the Master quadrant tower (approximately 1.3km away from the demolitions area), except the team preparing the charge for our 1,000lb bomb.
Bomb detonation
We waited, and waited, and waited a little more. Finally, we got our ‘10 seconds to firing’ call and, after a bit of an extended delay (the EOD operator in charge didn’t DI his camera), we saw the flash followed by a massive smoke cloud and the biggest boom from a shockwave I have heard yet. Impressive didn’t even cut it. It was spectacular – by far the best bit about the week. MSS were pretty impressed, although, as yet, we haven’t got any confirmed re-musters… Perhaps if we had some more 1,000lb bomb disposal demonstrations?
By the time it was clear to go back to the range, it was getting too late for those at the Master quadrant to go down and inspect the crater. We called it a day and went back to Domestic for another great dinner and a recap of our explosive holiday.
Thursday crawled in and, by 8am, we were back on the range for our final clean up and clearing of the range. The remaining unexploded 20mm rounds were disposed of and our demolition sites confirmed cleared, before we headed back to Domestic to pack-up.
It was all downhill from there – packing up all our gear into filthy, sand-filled vehicles, and relocating back to Whenuapai. I have to say, it took about a week of constant washing before all the sand finally disappeared from my hair! The vehicles required a pretty good scrubbing as well – good thing there’s always Mechs about…
To sum up the week, I absolutely loved it. And I’m definitely looking forward to our next wee ‘holiday’ at Kaipara.