(29NOV2008)The aerial gunnery range is now hot.
The Big Voice announces this at least a couple of times each day, and the announcement is shortly followed by a series of low, thumping explosions. I’m not sure where the aerial gunnery range is, exactly, but it’s either fairly close to post or those explosions are pretty sizeable.
There will be a controlled detonation in the next five minutes.
This announcement comes every few days, when one of the EOD unit disposes of munitions and explosives, often confiscated enemy supplies. This is followed by one large explosion that shakes the Earth enough for everyone on post to feel it.
It’s better to hear the warning before the explosion, though at this point I assume any explosion is of the friendly variety. An alarm will sound otherwise, though I have only heard that alarm once in the three months I’ve been here – and that was only a warning of a heightened threat and nothing came of it.
My group here in Afghanistan is growing, and two new colleagues arrived just a few days ago. I was in an office speaking with one of them recently when we missed the ‘controlled detonation’ announcement. When my new coworker heard and felt the explosion, his eyes got very wide and he looked around to see if anyone was reacting with anything more than the indifference with which I accepted the blast.
It won’t be long, I know, before he gets used to the explosions as we all do here. It was the same in Iraq and, in fact, at my home station as well. They test munitions near my office in the States and the building shakes several times each day.
I wonder if this constant exposure to explosions is desensitizing me to them. I imagine being at my home in the States and if the house next door were to explode, I might just turn up the volume on the television.
EOD = Explosives Ordinance Disposal
