Kicking Bombs ‘Til They Break

A war photo a day #2

Kicking Bombs ‘Til They Break Kicking Bombs ‘Til They Break

Uncategorized August 1, 2013

Kicking Bombs ‘Til They Break A war photo a day #2 Eight years. Seven wars. More death and destruction than I care to recount.... Kicking Bombs ‘Til They Break

Kicking Bombs ‘Til They Break

A war photo a day #2

Eight years. Seven wars. More death and destruction than I care to recount. I’ve been covering armed conflict since 2005. Every battlefield has its stories … and its unforgettable images. Follow me through my career at war, one jarring, haunting or sublime photo a day until I run out.

In Iraq in January 2005 on the morning of a national election, I accompanied a U.S. Army engineer unit clearing Improvised Explosive Devices from polling sites. They whipped out this tiny, radio-controlled robot to probe the bombs … until the ‘bot ran out of power and stalled. That’s when I snapped war-photo-a-day #2.

Frustrated, the engineer captain walked right up to one bomb and kicked it. Watching in horror, the other engineers and I expected the officer to explode in a pink mist. But his little punt broke the trigger mechanism and disabled the IED. He walked back grinning.

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