Defeating Land Mines in Afghanistan

by PAULA BENDER
Sun Correspondent
Archived January 2008 article

Over the next three weeks, Noonan would transfer his work duties as vice president at acoustical architectural firm D. L. Adams Associates over to his Hawaii staff, and come to grips with leaving behind his wife, his home, his career, his life.

Fifty weeks after receiving those orders, Noonan was back.

When he reported for duty on January 19, 2007, he had no idea where he was going or what he would do. He was shipped to the Army's Ft. Jackson in South Carolina for two weeks of training. He had to learn how to use a handgun and a rifle well enough to be qualified to carry them. He then shipped out to Kuwait, where he got a week's crash course in military driver training. At the end of February, Noonan found himself in Northern Afghanistan, stationed among a mix of military forces, FBI and foreign allies numbering nearly 400 men and women. He was second in command of a task force charged with fighting improvised explosive devices, otherwise known as IEDs. Noonan and his task force investigated and detonated IEDs, and they trained troops to avoid them, track them and discharge them.

Noonan is proud of the work he did in Afghanistan, and readily shares credit with his fellow task force members.

"IEDs are the number one killer of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," Noonan said. "Our mission was one of the most important, I think, and it was something we were successful at. I know that in Afghanistan, they are successful in bringing these numbers [of mine incidents] down, and we also worked with the task forces in Iraq, sharing our information with them."

Stationed at Bagram Airbase in Northern Afghanistan, Noonan said the living conditions weren't that bad. The former Soviet station played a key role during its occupation of Afghanistan. Once the Soviets withdrew in 1989, control of the base was fiercely contested by both the Northern Alliance and the Taliban, which at times, controlled either end of its airfield simultaneously. In 2001, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan made it possible for a British Special Boat Service to secure the base, which is now where more than 7,000 U.S. and allied mixed forces of military troops and civilian personnel are based. The base has seen improvements since this occupation, and personnel are housed in B-huts, wooden structures that offer significantly better shelter than the tents that were previously used.

Noonan said that the B-huts offer enough room to store one's gear and a place to sleep, but when one works 14 hours a day, seven days a week, it doesn't need to be much more than that. Bathrooms were structures unto themselves, and in the winter, it's a long, cold walk to the facilities.

"You don't have a lot of privacy or space, but we spend most of our time at the office anyway," Noonan said. "You didn't have time to do anything besides work. I didn't take a day off from the day I got there until October when I got a two-week pass to be with my wife."

Bagram Airfield is surrounded by mines, and according to Noonan, there were mines on the base as well. Regulations prevent anyone from walking off of the paved roads, for fear that one would step on a mine and lose a limb, or worse, die. Despite that, Noonan and many others on base took time to exercise at least once a day. Noonan would do the 8-mile run along the perimeter of the base to keep fit, which paid off when he and his wife Kelly met up in Germany to participate in a marathon together.

It was obvious to anyone who visited Noonan in his office at Bagram where his heart was. "I hung up calendar pictures of scenes from Hawaii and I shared my care packages from my family and friends," Noonan said. "Quite a few of us were from Hawaii - six or seven from the Navy, some from Schofield Barracks, an engineer with PACAF."

Noonan said a care package took five to seven days to arrive from Hawaii; and sending a package from Afghanistan took seven to ten days to get to the Islands. There was limited exposure to the Afghanis, but Noonan said the community was very supportive of the troops.

The scariest times for Noonan were when he had to leave the base, riding in an armored SUV, which was smaller than the HUMVEEs, for the hour and a half ride to Kabul for regular meetings with the NATO staff.

"Fortunately, we never were attacked and never encountered any mines, so we were never directly involved in combat," Noonan said.

The experience has left Noonan motivated to continue with the IED program in some way. An opportunity to help teach others to defeat IEDs awaits him. His record precedes him; and Noonan will soon welcome another mission.