Task Force Thor

Posted by Lex, on September 3, 2010

“My main goal is to find IEDs before they find us. If I get hit, that’s part of the job,” said Joe, who prays before the mission, during the mission and after the mission. “The vehicle is made to get blown up. The convoy’s first defense is my Husky.”

The Husky is built to withstand a 2,000-pound explosion, which would be more than enough to take out a medium-sized building. Two of Joe’s friends and fellow Husky operators hit IEDs, and both walked away intact.

Joe’s platoon, which is part of Task Force Thor, prays together in a huddle before beginning a mission. A typical operation lasts eight hours, but some run to 24 hours of slow, tense driving. Thor is responsible for clearing IEDs from the main routes in the south, primarily in Kandahar province, including Highway One, the arterial road that circles Afghanistan.

“It’s like a suspense movie that lasts eight hours,” said 2nd Lt. Joseph Powell, of Murrells Inlet, the 23-year-old leader of the South Carolina National Guard platoon. “It’s kinda like being on edge all that time, but it lasts so long it’s like a boring on edge.”

Task Force Thor

Credo

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me."

— John Paul Jones

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature"

— George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."

— Edmund Burke

"Μολὼν λαβέ"

— Leonidas

"Blogito Ergo Sum"

— Neptunus Lex