European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes thursday March 6, 1986 the squad pushes its Bangalore torpedoes into position under a barbed wire obstacle. Blowing up barriers by Chris Estes staff writer armoured personnel carriers charge up the Snow covered Hillside engines screaming tracks grinding Over body bruising , squads of soldiers sit sprawled among camouflage netting and ammunition boxes. They Brace themselves during the bronc like ride having Long ago Given up on the subway straps hanging from the ceiling. Security is one Soldier stuck up out of the gunner s Hatch holding onto his mounted .50-caliber machine gun freezing in Grafe Woehr s bitter cold. Near the Crest of the Hill barbed wire Waits. A double apron Fence one Engineer Calls it. It looks like a regular farm Fence with a tent of barbed wire stretching from the top to both sides. The night before the soldiers set up the Barrier. Now they Are going to destroy it in the Best army fashion blowing it to Smithereens. The four pcs reach the Barrier and swing around so the Back hatches face it. The Hatch of one pc swings open. The first Man out carries an m-60 machine gun. He races at an Angle away from the pc dives face first into the Snow and sets up a firing position. As the machine gunner sets up the rest of the squad scrambles from the pc. Each has a Rifle Slung Over his shoulder each has a Section of Bangalore torpedo in hand. The torpedo is a Long pipe like explosive used to blow paths through barbed wire barriers. It comes in 10 sections each 5 feet Long and 2 /2 inches in diameter. One Bangalore blows a walking path two destroy enough of the Barrier to drive vehicles through. The cavalry scouts Are to Lay out two Bangalore for each squad. An no supervises their Quick attachment of the Bangalore sections with the nose Section in front and the blasting Cap Detonator Cord time fuse and c-4 supple mental charge on the rear Section. Staff sgt. Rodney Damon watches sgt. William Millington prepare a fuse. Face Down on the Frozen ground the squad begins pushing the Bangalore under the barbed wire. Once the torpedo is in place they assemble the Deto nation system. The no in charge and one Soldier for each torpedo stay behind to set off the Bangalore while the rest Rush Back into the pc. The no checks first for safety precautions then orders the soldiers to set off the fuses. As soon As the fuses Are ignited the no and soldiers Rush Back to the pc. The rear and gunner hatches Are slammed shut the engines Roar and the pcs Jolt Forward. If anything the ride Down the Hill is rougher than the ride up. The pc pulls into a staging area and stops. For a few minutes the squad is quiet exchanging few words. Three other squads also had set up Bangalore. The time fuses were Cut nine minutes Long and set 30 seconds apart. Someone did t Cut enough Cord. Six minutes after the signal to ignite was Given a huge bang vibrates the pcs. A few jokes waiting. Then. Three rumbling explosions half a minute apart. In one pc scout spec. 4 Dane Jorgensen said he enjoys learning demolitions. They mainly teach us How to Clear obstacles he said. It s fun. The Best part is what happens afterwards see ing what the charge actually does to a Roadblock instead of just hearing it go Boom. When we came out late last night i did t know what to expect he said. I thought we d just  Jorgensen of troop a 3rd so 12th Cav in Buedingen said he trained with the explosives in school but Only stood around a table with other students and watched. Here he destroyed things. Is photos by Tony Nauroth Sec. Ronald Devine cod 23rd engr in Hanau said the scouts were being trained in demolitions because there might not be any engineers with their unit in War time. He said Cav scouts May have to destroy roadblocks or blow tank delaying craters in the Road and not have time to Call for an Engineer. Devine said the engineers were polishing their own skills while training the Cav troops. Both units Are in the 3rd army div. The commander of the Engineer company said 12 Cav troops and 63 engineers participated in the exercise which included breaching a Roadblock using shape charges. The shape charge directs a blast through the Obsta Cle Jorgensen explained. It knocks a Large sized Hole in other exercises included blowing Hasty Road craters designed to slow Down tracked vehicles and exploding paths through mine clusters breaching a Wall and using a charge to Cut through steel beams