Hill airmen target Iraq bombs

If improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq aren't killing U.S. soldiers, they're sending them home with missing limbs and lasting psychological impacts.

The subject of IEDs is a top focus for the Army in Iraq. And the Air Force, with airmen also on the ground there, is trying to keep pace with the enemy's ability to adapt its use of roadside bombs to kill U.S. troops.

Airmen from Hill Air Force Base have been training in Utah's west desert this week to learn how to recognize IEDs, which have killed 884 of the 2,508 U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq since July 2003. Six of 16 military personnel from Utah who have died in Iraq have been killed by IEDs.

"It's one of our highest risks," said Lt. Col. Brett Crozier, commander of the 75th Civil Engineering Squadron.

Crozier and others with HAFB have been at the Utah Test and Training Range for combat exercises, which include watching different types of IEDs explode. Members of the 75th Air Base Wing are getting ready for deployment in September.

"Our adversary is constantly adapting to the way we react out there," Crozier said about IEDs.

In the beginning, IEDs were easier to spot, and deaths due to roadside bombs were in the single digits in the first few months of U.S. occupation in Iraq.

But as the insurgency in Iraq has grown, deaths by IEDs have been as high as 59 in one month. IEDs have killed 40 or more U.S. soldiers each month in six out of the past 12 months in Iraq.

Insurgents have gotten better at concealing their bombs and "craftier" at making detonation devices, according to Crozier.

IEDs are homemade bombs detonated by someone stepping on one or driving over one, or it can be detonated remotely with a device such as a cell phone. IEDs can include explosives like hand grenades or large mortar rounds for more killing potential.

"The main thing is for us to increase our awareness of what they're actually doing out there now," Crozier said.

Explosive ordnance disposal teams do find and clear plenty of bombs before they explode.

Hill Staff Sgt. Joseph Upton's team found some 360 bombs over the course of about four months while he was in Iraq.

Outside of a classroom or controlled environment like a training range, the best place to learn about IEDs is in Iraq, where soldiers with the Utah National Guard have had their share of close calls with roadside bombs.