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Military Destroys Weapons With Blast
Saturday, November 2, 2002
By Chris Hawley
Associated Press Writer

It is risky work - four soldiers in Afghanistan were killed by a booby-trapped cache earlier this year, and others have lost fingers, hands and part of a leg. But for guys who really like blowing stuff up, Afghanistan is the place to be.



"We're no pyros, but we like to make big bangs."



KHOST, Afghanistan -- AP
First came the pillar of flame, about 100 feet high and topped with an eerie green cap. Then came the explosions -- thousands of them -- shooting red tracer bullets and chunks of glowing red metal high in the air.

Atop a nearby hill, a small crowd of explosives disposal experts oohed and ahhed as 1.2 million rounds of confiscated ammunition and 3,000 tubes of rocket fuel went up in a blast of light and noise Thursday outside Khost. It was probably the largest single bonfire of ammunition the U.S. military has ever done in Afghanistan, said Capt. Jonathan Hunter.

"Ah, I love this job," said Staff Sgt. Bruce Clark of Palmyra, Pa., as anti-aircraft bullets popped like popcorn.

Here in Khost, the center of the U.S. Army's campaign in Afghanistan, these men are known to all as the ones responsible for the booms -- the really loud booms -- that shake tents and rattle nerves nearly every afternoon as the Army destroys weapons and ammunition collected by U.S. troops during months of raids.
(More: A Bradenton Herald News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan