A mine is a wonderful thing to waste

'Whatever you do, don't be in a hurry ...'


Martin Savidge reports from the field for CNN on major breaking news stories and has anchored several of the network's regularly scheduled newscasts.

Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news around the world.

By Martin Savidge
CNN

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- I don't like land mines. Never have. Never will.

I know there are some top brass and people in political circles who swear by them. I also know such support is in direct proportion to physical distance from them. In Washington they seem OK. When you suddenly wander into an unmarked minefield, you feel the old "What was I thinking?!" tickling your spine.

The Kandahar area is said to be among the five most heavily mined places in the world. I ponder that a lot as I walk around. They're still finding mines here at the airport, our media base. Yesterday, they found one right outside the helicopter operations headquarters. Two soldiers were guarding it. Not enough in my mind. You just can't trust mines.

Several weeks ago they found one next to the latrine we'd all been using. They removed it and moved the bathroom. How would that look on your military record? "Wounded while seeking relief."

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EXTRA INFORMATION

Images from Operation Anaconda

Map of Afghanistan showing the location of the fighting

Savidge reports: The Battlefield

A reporter's reflections

The road home

Getting out

Mining snow

According to the United Nations, there are more than 600 types of mines. More than 600. Most of them explode under pressure. Kind of like a number of bosses I've had. Mines don't care what kind of pressure -- a tank, a camel, a child. Bang! There's a three-legged camel running around outside the base. He could tell you something about mines.

Mines can also be set off by tripwires, tilt rods, controlled detonations or all of the above. Some have anti-handling devices so that even if you find them and try to remove them, Boom! Mines win again.

There are mines you can dance a flamenco on and nothing happens. But the next poor soul who does so much as a single measure of soft-shoe? -- his dancing days are over.

The situation is made more complex in Afghanistan because of the drought. The soil is so compressed that there's no give. No give, no go when it comes to a mine. You can walk down a path for weeks without so much as losing your way. But take the same path after a rain and your way isn't the only thing you'll lose. It's been raining here the last two nights.

Good noise from Norway

I hate mines, they scare me. Which is why I like the Norwegians.

To them, the only good mine is a dead one. Killing mines is what they do around the airport every day. They operate a device called a flail. It's a big kind of truck- or tank-looking thing that has a rotating tool on the front to whip chains around with weights on the ends.

It beats the living daylights out of the ground. Sends up one heck of a dust cloud too. A huge, thick metal plate shields the operator. The thing makes such a racket I don't think the driver even knows when he hits a small antipersonnel mine.

We can usually tell when he finds something bigger, because he rumbles back into camp to weld on some more chain to replace what was lost. Better chains than legs, I always say. Which union do you think he belongs to?

Getting into a minefield is easy. Getting out is a whole different ballgame. Best advice? I hope you brought your sleeping bag and a Snickers bar, because you're going to be a while.

If you can see your footsteps leading back to where you came from, follow them out. If you can't, you've got problems. "Whatever you do, don't be in a hurry," my trusty mine book reads. "It's better to spend two days in a minefield than to be killed," it reads. I find that a tad understated.

So if you ever stumble over a mine in your travels (now there's a choice of words), do us all a favor: Waste it.

Tomorrow: Savidge on being a noncombatant among combatants. "In many states back home, if you lose a gun -- say, in a convenience store holdup -- it's automatic that you go to jail. Here, if you lose a gun, you could end up in stockade ..."