A snaking convoy of tanks and trucks halts at a destroyed bridge.  Soldiers climb out.  Two jeeps of the recon patrol start down a side road, as if on a weekend outing.  An explosion. We all dive under the trucks, not knowing the front jeep has hit a mine.  When we look again, it’s lying up­side down like a tortoise flipped on its shell, roof crushed, wheels spinning in a cloud of dust.

 

The second recon jeep speeds forward to help friends pinned beneath the first. It too explodes – another land-mine.  After the echoes die, we can clearly hear the cries of the wounded. Mine sweeping specialists are called.  In slow motion they walk, swinging detectors side to side; more mines found and marked with little red flags.

 

Another jeep careening along our road from HQ screeches to a stop.  A runner jumps out waving a wad of papers.  We hear him shout, Those are our mines – laid this morning. Here are the maps.