We were on the first of two route clearance patrols for the day. This one was first thing in the morning and we were using an M1A1 Abrams and 3 Up Armored Hummers to clear the main supply route between our Post and the main Logistics Base about 25 klicks away. Our segment had been clear in the 3 months we had been there but today would be different.

We were about 5 klicks out from the FOB. A little spindly old Farmer came out from the side of the road and flagged us down. He wanted to show us something. We brought our interpreter and after a few minutes we got the gist of the situation........there was a bunch of wire on this land that wasn't there yesterday and wasn't his. He took us to it and there was this spool of the single strand stereo speaker wire laying there near some trees. I sent my Joes out in a sweep to secure the area and examined the wire.......it had been spooled with two strands side by side and two wires were running off of the spool, down the tree line towards the road. I yelled to my Lt so he could call it up and started following it. It went up into a tiny culvert and disappeared. I called the Lt again and told him what I found. There was no way that there were shells in there so I felt safe. Heh....was I wrong.

The area was secure at this point and we had control of the means of detonation so again, we felt safe.......stupid? You betcha. The Lt came to look at the wires and I was reaching into the culvert to see if they were just tied off for later attachment. See....the insurgents don't have to assemble everything in one spot and then emplace it....sometimes they do it in parts. Guy A assembles the shell and detonator, Guy B has the expertise to do the initiator and Guy C...the expendable Guy, he gets to go out and assemble the parts on site and set it off. Sometimes he messes up and blows himself to hell while setting it in....bummer.

Anyway, I was slowly running my hand along when I came to a bulge. Now to say that my mouth went very dry and my palms got very wet in the space of a second would be a slight understatement. I yelled for everyone to get clear and with the exception of my Lt, they did. I slowly pulled my hand out and with it came a small cube the size of a Rubix Cube. It was clear tape holding together the initiator. Oh...Joy....The wires from the initiator to the device ran straight to a mound of dirt that I had been standing with one foot on or kneeling next to for several minutes. I set the cube down gently and ordered that the perimeter be pushed out 200 meters. We called for EOD and they came and blew it. I asked what they though it was and the guy who placed the charge said it was probably 2 152mm rounds, one stacked on the other due to the size of the blast and the depth of the hole. Dirt, stone and metal schrapnel landed around a 100 meters from the blast site and it took a section of road with it when it went up.

The location for the set up pretty much meant it would have been used on a supply convoy coming to my Post....the site could be observed from the other direction. Those shells would have seriously damaged anything not armored and I was standing on them. I just got a free pass and I became about 1000% more careful about everything after that.