ANA Reborn by Carl Facciponte - HTML preview
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Chapter 28
alph,” said General Coopers from behind his R“ desk, “Commander Bodyk tells me there is a freshly abandoned Russian AvtoVAZ passenger car about five miles to the west of us in the foothills. He thinks it would be a good experience to have your trainees approach it as a possible booby-trap.” Lance handed Ralph a paper with the coordinates of the automobile. “What do you think?”
“Yes, Sir. It sounds like it would be perfect as a training exercise,” said the standing Sergeant.
“They’ve been practicing on car-bomb scenarios on some of our abandoned vehicles, but this would be the first time they got to practice on a completely unknown car. I think they’ll be excited about it, Sir.”
“Very good. Can we do it in two days?”
“We certainly can, Sir. I’ll go out with a couple of our troops tomorrow morning and check it out.”
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“Thank you, Sergeant. Dismissed.”
Ralph saluted, pivoted on his heels, and left the room.
The next morning, Ralph and two Army Bomb Disposal Unit personnel located the abandoned car sitting twenty feet from the road at the given coordinates.
“Okay, guys. It’s showtime. We need to approach this car as a possible real threat since it is the first time we’ve seen it. You know the procedure. Look for footprints around the car, handprints in the dust on the hood and trunk, any scraps of tape or wire around the vehicle, signs of forced entry, probe the sand around the wheels, and use mirrors to check under the carriage.”
The team found nothing suspicious. “We look good so far, Ralph,” one of the team members said. “Shall we look inside for anything out of place?”
“Yes,” said Ralph. “I hate this part. We have to open everything remotely with stands and rope.
Let’s set up a stand to get the driver's door open.
Run a rope through the pulley and tie it to the door handle to allow us to lift the handle. Use 220
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another rope to pull open the door. Back off far enough in case it goes Boom!”
The door was opened with no issues.
“Shall we rig for opening the hood?” a squad member asked.
“Let’s do it,” Ralph replied. ”One rope on the hood latch under the dashboard, and tripod stands to pull open the internal hood latch and hood.”
The hood was opened with no issues. The team found no wires or triggers for explosives.
The remainder of the car was searched without finding anything suspicious.
“I guess it really is just an old, beat-up, abandoned Russian car,” said Ralph after the inspection was completed. “Let's get back to the base and draw up some training plans. Use the broom in the Hummer to wipe out our tracks, so it looks fresh for training.”
...
Ana and Rhett met with Ralph in the chow hall for dinner.
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“Ralph, you were gone for the whole afternoon. Anything interesting going on?” said Rhett.
“Not too much, guys. There is an old abandoned car a few miles from here that I’ll use for a car-bomb training exercise with the Afghan troops tomorrow. A couple of the base bomb squad people came with me to check it out.”
“Did it look suspicious?” said Ana.
“No, not at all. We always approach vehicles as if there is a live bomb in them, anyhow. It was fun working with professionals. It only took us three hours to clear it.”
“Three hours!” exclaimed Rhett. “That seems like a long time.”
“Well, for us, it went pretty quickly. I have eight hours slated tomorrow to do the same things with the trainees. Remember, we don’t have your bionic super x-ray vision to help us like you do,” Ralph chuckled.
“You jerk,” Ana laughed, “you know we don’t have those things!”
“Yeah, I know, but it is fun to play with the idea, isn’t it?”
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Rhett nodded. “Yes, perhaps the next version of us. But seriously, Ralph, be very careful out there. The drone strike on Bahar has me skittish and seeing plots behind every tree.”
Ralph smirked, “Well, it’s good there aren’t many trees in the desert, then. I’ll be safe. We did an extensive search of the vehicle today. It’s simply abandoned.”
“Just the same...” Ana started to say as she let her voice trail off.
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