Airmen thank Iraqi family for lifesaving assist

  • Published
  • By Capt. Larry van der Oord
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) --  Several members of the 887th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron delivered a new generator, a care package filled with baked goods and a heart-felt thank you to a young Iraqi girl and her family near Camp Bucca, Iraq, Sept. 18.

The girl was playing with a group of friends when she noticed something strange sticking out of a nearby mound of dirt marked with wet mud. She told her father, a local farmer, who immediately notified local Iraqi highway patrol officers. 

An IHP official dispatched an Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal unit to the site where they uncovered an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP. An EFP is an improvised explosive device designed to directly penetrate armor and release shrapnel in all directions. The EOD team dug up the device and disassembled it.  Airmen from the 887th ESFS were on scene to provide security.

"EFPs are the most deadly roadside bombs that we face," said Maj. Larry Wood, 887th ESFS commander. "They can be powerful enough to destroy a U.S. Army Abrams battle tank."

There's no telling how many lives might have been lost if the EFP had been detonated when 887th ESFS members passed by during one of their regular patrols in the area, Major Wood said. 

By way of thanks for the life-saving discovery, 887th ESFS officials coordinated with the local Army civil military operations liaison to find out what kind of assistance they could offer the family.

"We really wanted to show our appreciation for what this little girl did," Major Wood said. "Giving them the generator was the least we could do. It was just our way of saying 'thank you' for preventing something that could have been devastating."