Border Berms Cleared To Make Way For U.S. Invasion Of Iraq
But when the big day arrived and Col. Gregg Martin, commander of the 130th Engineer Brigade, and Sergeant Major Sergio Riddle raced to the border in a little flock of Humvees to fine tune the operation, I wondered why the colonel took off in another direction and . left us. I was bemused when we arrived at one of the key lanes a few hours later and saw most of the work already done in the broad daylight, well ahead of schedule, by a civilian contractor, no less.
There were Army D9s, parked in neat rows on one side of the horizon line, out of sight of Iraq, while, at the opposite side of the DMZ, at the end of the first lane we investigated, a lone civilian D9 sat idle by the Iraqi's partially breeched berm. The Cat's operator lounged at the helm of the big orange machine in his slacks and polo shirt while a lot of tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and gun-toting soldiers in full battle gear guarded him from every bit of high ground nearby.