Staying Alive For One Last Patrol In Afghanistan -- David Zucchino, L.A. Times
Photography and video by Carolyn Cole
Reporting from KHOGIANO, Afghanistan
Minesweeper Kyle Klobuchar helps keep his comrades safe in Kandahar province for seven months. They've been shot at, but on their last mission the roadside bomb remains the biggest fear.
Spc. Kyle Klobuchar spends his days listening intently to the beeps, hums and warbles of a hand-held explosives detector known as a Minehound.
He likes to think of the tones as the warble of either a baby turkey, adolescent turkey or adult turkey. Each tone indicates the presence of metal, copper wire, explosives or other components of the roadside bombs known as IEDs.
So naturally Klobuchar's buddies in 3rd Platoon, Comanche Company gave him a nickname: the Bomb Whisperer.
In the seven months since arriving here in western Kandahar province, the easygoing 22-year-old from a small town in Minnesota had uncovered more than a dozen of the crude but lethal improvised explosive devices.
Now he was taking the lead on one more mission: the platoon's last combat patrol in Afghanistan before packing up and heading home.
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My Comment: No one wants to be a casualty .... and more to the point .... not on the last mission/patrol in Afghanistan. But with foreign forces now committed to leaving Afghanistan this mindset is now changing .... no one wants to be the last soldier killed in that country.