More Checkpoint Fun

Today was a slow day in the IT world for me, so I offered my time to the site manager.  He asked me to escort the host country labor manager, Mr. Hussein, around the base on his many errands.  When Mr. Hussein wishes to move the Army requires that he be accompanied by a soldier and a civilian contractor, so I agreed.

We left the camp to take a dump truck off the airport and then go to another camp to check on the progress with septic tanks.  After dropping off a few welders and a crane so that the work on the tanks could be done at the other camp, we turned back to our primary work site, by way of the checkpoint to pick up a sand truck.

At the checkpoint we were informed that the checkpoint was closed due to the detection, by bomb dogs, of an explosive device five minutes earlier.  We were locked down on the airport.

With nothing to do, we turned back to go to the work site, only to find out that the checkpoints allowing entry to the worksite were similarly closed.

It turns out that two dump trucks had been identified by two bomb dogs as containing, or having contained bombs or bomb-making materials.  EOD was called in and the trucks were cleared, the drivers however were arrested.  I’m not sure about their status this evening, but the trucks were owned by the drivers, and the fact that the dogs sniffed out bomb-making materials, making me think that perhaps the trucks will be at the checkpoint until the Army moves them and the drivers are likely the latest additions to the POW roster.

This afternoon I spent a bit of time thinking about the quantity of explosive load that a dump truck could contain, covered in dirt and camouflaged for a trip onto the airport.  The load wouldn’t be a small one, that’s certain.

A sobering thought…

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