After this deck falls, does it just stay in the river? What size pieces dropped when it was cut? These are Rich questions.
Made You Look.
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Writings and musings on the eccentric beauty of sacrifice. Come journey and write with us. We are resolved to capture something positive in a troubled world and laugh when we can along the way. This, then, is dedicated in Loving Memory to LCpl. Aaron C. Austin, USMC KIA Fallujah, Iraq on April 26, 2004. Rock On...
2 comments:
Actually, all of the sections of deck, and a few beams, that you see missing were lost into the river during the explosion. The ones the Seabees are cutting loose had to be removed in order to perform the repairs; they were then put back in place. We salvage one of the large steel beams that was damaged and used it for force protection at the bridge entry.
At this point, the river was approximately 20-feet down and fairly deep. Being able to fish someone out was a major concern.
I had wondered because I came across a couple of articles on the
Seabees who are divers.
At 536th Engr. Bn. in Panama, we had a detachment of divers. They welded under water as well as performed salvage missions. They were the ones who pulled our first casualty out, as well as the helo. I was always amazed at their work and the danger they were in. The Army, at that time anyway, had only 110 divers. I think we had about 14.
And I'll bet it was a concern about falling. I know we've lost more than one troop that way. One of the Gold Star Mothers in an online group I was in lost her son in water. I think it took a while to recover his body.
Thanks for the great leadership, Rich. Karen told me your unit was the first in a while that had been to Iraq that had not lost someone or had someone seriously injured. Is there more you could tell us about that?
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