One night in August, we were attacked with indirect fire on our base. Specifically, a rocket was launched at us. Luckily it missed us by a good half a kilometer. The manhunt that ensued that evening produced no suspect, so we assumed they had successfully fled the scene and we called it a night.

The following morning, a local national drove up to our gate, shouting in Dari and insisting that we let him in immedeatley. Upon inspection of the vehicle, we noticed a large blanket in the back covering something up. When he removed the blanket for us, we found a 160 pound man with third degree burns on over 40% of his body! The man was immedeatley rushed to our CASH (Combat Army Surgical Hospital) on post where he was revived and sustained for the purposes of questioning. He revealed the following:

The previous day the man (a local Taliban soldier) and two others (whom he would not name) obtained a rocket, about three meters long, and intended to launch it at our base. That evening, he positioned himself roughly two kilometers away and, since he didn't have the equipment to lauch the rocket correctly, propped the rocket up on some cinder blocks hoping to use them like a ramp.

Since he didn't have the equipment to properly launch the rocket, he had find a way to manually ignite the rocket. With this particular model, the way to do that is to remove the protective cap on the back end of the rocket and, using an electrical source, ignite the propellant. In essence, mimicking the ignition of say, a model rocket, using electrical wire and an electrical source.

Now, to explain something else about rockets. Rockets, particularly RPG's and the American AT4, have what's called a "back blast" which, esentially, is an initial flame trail that projects to the rear for at least 50 meters at a 90 degree fan. Meaning that, when someone is launching a rocket, it's a necessity that you be nowhere to the rear of them. So back to the story:

After removing the protective cap, the man then daisy chained about 3 meters of cheap copper wire (similiar to stereo wire), kneeled down, and held a lantern battery to the wire.

The back blast knocked him back about forty-five feet and, as we discovered the following day at the launch site, blew him literally out of his sandals. His companions left him for dead and he laid there in the desert alone for what amounted to nine hours until he was discovered and rushed to us.

He survived on life support, given by the very service men and women that he tried to kill the night prior, for two days until he died from infection.

Needless to say, we all felt a little safer when we realized that this was the kind of enemy we were up against.

Submitted on 05/03/2007

Submitted by: Kurt Heuer
Reference:

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
A fine submission, Kurt! Yes, we are up against a desperate enemy whose zeal far outweighs their horse sense or knowledge of modern weaponry. I commend the efforts of the CASH crew to try and save this fellow, but when you try and light a military rocket as if it were a bottle rocket, you're in trouble, period! A keeper! (Oh yes...a "Hoo-ah" and "Well done" from a fellow soldier...42nd ID Band, NYARNG!) :-)

Graham said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Not the brightest light on the tree, your fellow here. However, never underestimate the enemy, however stupid he may appear. It's "that kind of enemy" that will strike when you least expect. Been there, done that. Remember: a bullet from an idiot is a bullet no less. Thanks, Kurt.

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Well, I have heard of a short fuse but this is a new twist. Almost a Wyle E Coyote feel to this one. Too bad more of these jamokes don't try to fire 'em off this way. We could use lots more of them "out to launch" like this one. Thanks for the story Kurt

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