Swiss deminers - Saab

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One needs to be at least a Sergeant to be able to work here, and repeater-course soldiers serving for just 2 or 3 weeks are also unsuitable for KAMIR. The basic training lasting one year ends with 3-day exams and the failure quota is high. “60 percent didn’t pass the exams last year”, says Spora. In Thun, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) is primarily a man’s job. One woman belongs to the team. And one saint. Holy Barbara, patron saint of hard-rock miners, pyrotechnical experts, firefighters and many other professionals, holds her protecting hand also over the clearers of explosive ordnance. “Some of us”, says Spora, “believe in her.” On 4th December is Barbara’s Saint’s day, and some of us will only work on that day if it is absolutely unavoidable. Bomb in Sörenberg/Switzerland In the dud reporting centre, however, there are no breaks. The centre is staffed around the clock. Right now KAMIR specialist Hans Walter sits in the small room in front of hikers outside. “Our job depends considerably on the season and the weather.” The more people out and about, the more often we at KAMIR get information and reports on discoveries. Last year, for example, the KAMIR specialists blasted 349 duds. Additionally, found ammunition had to be picked up in 500 cases and 710 times we were summoned to collect ammunition fragments and dispose of them correctly. “Each case is dealt with within 24 hours”, explains Spora. All our teams of two are currently on their way in the Canton of Berne and in central Switzerland. The last reports came from the Gantrisch mountain range, from the Wandfluh near Jaun, from Gsteig, from the Glaubenberg in the Canton of Obwalden and from the Schrattenfluh near Sörenberg. In the latter place, a bomb weighing 200 kilograms was found. “It must have lain there for a few years already”, says Walter. It happens that ammunition lying around remains undiscovered for decades. Based on the description by the finders or the police, Walter and his colleagues can usually determine the type of dud. Quite frequently pictures are useful in the identification. In interventions abroad, particularly, even the experts are occasionally confronted by Team leader Hansjürg Lüssi in preparations to destroy a dud. a mystery, i.e. by unknown ammunition. “In these cases it won’t hurt us if we have to enquire with colleagues in another country”, adds team leader Hansjürg Lüssi. Rice and beans in the Sudan Lüssi himself is often abroad, he only just returned from the Sudan. He was there for nine months and led a group of up to twenty persons. It was a battle against the dangerous leftovers of earlier conflicts. His job was to trace ammunition dumps and destroy the explosive ordnance. He brought home pictures showing stockpiles of ammunition in the bush. “Here we blasted almost every day”, he comments. It was an exhausting time a long way from the famous Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountains making up the fantastic panorama which he sees from his desk back in Switzerland. In the Sudan he used to stay in a field camp in the bush from Monday to Friday. “On the menu were mostly beans and rice, meat or fish only very rarely, and the next settlement a day’s travelling away”, says Lüssi. Up to 56 °C during the day and not much less at night. “Took a bit of getting used to.” And dangerous? Accidents were rare, they occurred at the utmost if the very strict regulations were disregarded. “The biggest hazard in these countries is the road traffic.” Or diseases like malaria. He didn’t get tired of the place, however. “The people there let you feel how glad they are not having to make long detours any more to fetch their drinking water.” Or that their children can safely reach their school again. Lüssi thinks that his job is very satisfying. This was a little less the case on the Saturdays and Sundays which he usually spent attending meetings and writing reports. “But that’s part of the job.” Transporter and robot In the garage of the KAMIR building we find the newly acquired central piece of equipment about which Logistics Manager Daniel Bregy gets very enthusiastic. The special transporter from Sweden, weighing seven tons, is “unique in Switzerland”, he says. Inside the trailer is a round pressure vessel which can be sealed airtight to transport the explosive. A dud or other explosive material cannot always be disposed of on the spot. “But in inhabited areas, for instance, this would be too dangerous”, explains Bregy. In these cases a robot hoists the explosive item into the transporter. “From then on absolutely nothing can happen any more.” The experts certainly do what is humanly possible for safety. Little wonder that the equipment of an EOD specialist, consisting of protective clothes, helmet and mine detector, costs about 8000 <strong>Swiss</strong> Francs. Since 1998, when his training as a mine clearer started, team leader Lüssi also wears this equipment from time to time. He worked abroad repeatedly, for example in Albania which is now deemed to be free of mines. Also in Chile, where mines are still lying around from the times of the military junta and where he trained members of the Chilean Army in using a novel mine destruction system. Let others go first Twenty years ago, Lüssi gave up his original job as a trained chef on account of the irregular working hours and with the intention of spending more time with his children. He joined the fortification guard and thus became a regular soldier. Has he made a mistake? After all, he now spends months at a time abroad, away from his wife. “No, not at all. The children have grown in the meantime. But the family’s backing must be intact, otherwise it doesn’t work.” His wife copes well with the situation, at least at Christmas he was at home.
Nevertheless, at age 52, Lüssi wouldn’t mind if he didn’t have so many assignments abroad. “I’m now at an age when one can let others go first. They also want to gain their experiences.” Christian Wanner, for example: On a Saturday the 32-year-old sits in front of the football stadium in Bern and enjoys the sunshine. He spends the weekends in Switzerland and during the week gets trained by the German Armed Forces as a disarmer for military-tactical deployments. After his parents had watched a TV programme on the “ten most dangerous jobs” they rang him immediately because the bomb disarmer had come second in the ranking. But he was able to calm them down since the whole thing isn’t so dramatic in his view. “If one abides by all safety regulations, the risk is minimal.” He has the “necessary respect”, relies on his common sense and is convinced that everything will be right. “I’m an optimist.” Some tough nuts to crack There are dangers, however. An ever greater problem are the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). “Nothing easier than making up something”, says Wanner. Seeing that ammunition is usually colour-coded, one thing he and his colleagues are not allowed to suffer from is colour blindness. Generally speaking, they must have a knowledge of electronics, be calm and composed as well as physically fit. Equally important to Wanner is that a team cooperates well. Apart from dedicated persons, robots and dogs are also used increasingly. “The fine art of it is to separate the fuze from the effective part”, he comments his job. To disarm an explosive charge is like cracking a nut, and this in a way that the shell doesn’t burst in a thousand pieces. In autumn he will leave for Kosovo for a few months to “crack nuts”. It will be a demanding job, but he looks forward to it. It was and is his choice to meet challenges of this nature. One of the principles all <strong>deminers</strong> go by according to Christian Wanner: “It’s always the simplest route that’s mined.” The bang is due any moment. Until then full concentration is wanted from specialist Martin Barmettler.
Page 1: Swiss deminers Text: Johannes Reich

Swiss deminers - Saab

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