TwoSpade’s Deck

The systems guy I share a shift with at night is leaving on Friday after being here for a year.  Before he left, his brother, who is in the military, came out to see him before he left from Talil.  He offered to take him and his friends to check out the garage of Cougar JERRV’s he works with.  Um…hell yeah!

Behold! The Cougar JERRV (Joint EOD rapid response vehicle) 6x6

The garage had several in there, including the 4x4 variant.

Though in the pictures below you can see how big they are relative to me, the interior is quite cozy.  The glass windows are about 10″ thick.  Most of what these things are made of is pure armor.

They used to carry spare tires, but decided changing 800 lbs. tires on the side of the road was unlikely.

Up by the turret. While climbing up there, I tried to be careful until I was assured "there isn't anything you could break on this thing if you tried."

We were given a quick run down of several sophisticated systems they use to find mines and IED’s.  There are more screens and specialized computer equipment in these things than at my computer desk at home (FYI, that is actually saying a lot).  They can also turn off all the lights and drive in complete darkness thanks to the sensors around the vehicle.  In short, these things are badass.

Our tour guide grabbed something on the shelf in back and handed it to me.  C-4 for controlled detentions to destroy unexploded ordnance and the like.  Um…hell yeah!

Two sticks of C-4. The shelf inside was full of the stuff. Thankfully, usually when I hear a big boom outside, it is these guys blowing something up before it hurts any of our guys.

Each vehicle also has two robots, one for doing the big dirty work and another one for more precise work.  Apparently, the “precise” robot is designed by the same guys who make the Roomba.  “Why don’t you go ahead and pick it up, it isn’t that heavy.”  Um…hell yeah!

Remote controlled robots for clearing explosives.

Needless to say but it was a nice surprise to get out of the systems shop and see something different today.

This shrine has several example of ordnance they clear. The logo in back is the EOD Crab. (Click picture for details)

If you are curious about the guitar shaped like a gun…you’ll have to talk to this guy:

Click picture for his Facebook Profile. Don't say I didn't warn you though.

In other news, I’m all caught up on Chuck, leaving me completely helpless to the waiting game of the Season 2 Finale.  It’d be nice if I could watch the damn playoffs too.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.