IEDs in Afghanistan: The Deadliest Weapon

More than 130 Americans have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan. Most of them were killed by the deadliest weapon in the enemy's arsenal, the roadside bomb, or IED, an improvised explosive device.

On this Memorial Day weekend, we wanted to honor the American servicemen and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice and to remind you of the challenges our military faces every day.

One of the biggest challenges is to find roadside bombs before they explode.

As we first reported last fall, a small army of elite units called "Task Force Paladin" carries out search and destroy missions looking for them.

Only volunteers are allowed to serve on Paladin teams because their mission and the weapons they're trying to find are so dangerous.

Extra: A Solemn Farewell
Extra: Five Bombs in Two Days
Extra: The Deadliest Job
Extra: Bomb Squad Training

"It's been a terrorist tool of choice for many, many years," Col. Jeffrey Jarkowsky told 60 Minutes correspondent Byron Pitts.

Col. Jarkowsky was in charge of Task Force Paladin at the Bagram Air Base when we visited Afghanistan.

"'Look at us. We can kill, we can maim, we can destroy when we want to, and the Americans can't stop us,'" Pitts remarked.

"That's their intent, yes," Jarkowsky agreed.

The day after we arrived at Bagram, a roadside bomb claimed two more American lives. The base held what's called a fallen comrade ceremony for Air Force Lieutenant Roslyn Schulte and Army Reservist Shawn Pine, an intelligence consultant. Service members by the hundreds stopped what they were doing and lined the street to pay their respects as the coffins were driven slowly from the base mortuary to the air strip. Video of the ceremony was produced by the military for the family of Lt. Schulte, who shared it with us.

"In the week that we've been here, five Americans have been killed by IEDs. How does that hit you?" Pitts asked Col. Jarkowsky.

"Very hard. We take each one of these personally," he replied. "And I think about their families. And every time we see one of these casualties, we look at what happened, both to see what did the enemy do, how can we counter what the enemy has done."

To try to counter the bomb threat, Paladin squads hit the road every day looking for explosives. We spent ten days with a squad led by Army Captain Dave Foster. In less than an hour, they discovered their first bomb. It would not be the last.

"The IED that we found had a 107 millimeter rocket connected to a command wire. As the team was doing dismount and ops they found the command wire. A 107 millimeter rocket has approximately about eight pounds of explosives in the warhead," Capt. Foster explained.

They spotted it near a family's home. Staff Sergeant Max Cabrera found and then disconnected the command wire - or detonation wire - disabling the bomb.

Despite the risk to himself, Staff Sgt. Cabrera picked up the bomb, and to avoid civilian casualties, he carried it behind an abandoned building and blew it up.

"You get scared, but when you got so many things going through your mind, you just don't even know what to concentrate on sometimes," Cabrera told Pitts.

Asked if he's scared, he said, "Yes sir. Everybody is. Lets you know you're still alive."

Cabrera is 27. His home is on the island of Saipan, in the West Pacific. He told Pitts he estimates an IED costs about $10 to make in Afghanistan.

Asked what it takes to do the job of disabling bombs, Capt. Foster told Pitts, "A belief that you are making a difference and a little bit of craziness."

"A little bit of crazy goes a long way in Afghanistan," Pitts remarked.

"Yes sir. It does," Foster said.

60 Minutes traveled to eastern Afghanistan, Khost Province, which is walking distance from the Pakistan border, where many of the bomb makers are trained.

Their bombs are so powerful that Paladin units have to travel in specialized, highly armored vehicles. Each one costs nearly $1 million.

One vehicle type, called a "Buffalo," has a large, claw-like arm that can dig for bombs in the road. Another can snag trip wires lying across the road.

On one mission, the Paladin squad was working with a Michigan National Guard unit to clear bombs from roads in the area. There are 66 route clearance units like this in Afghanistan.

Specialist Christopher Parsons has been a guardsman for three years. "I love the pressure and it puts a lot of pressure on me to make sure I do my job correctly," he told Pitts.

Asked what skill it takes to do his job, Spc. Parsons said, "Honestly, I'm from Michigan, so I love to hunt and that helps a lot."

"So whether it's hunting deer in Michigan or hunting IEDs in Afghanistan, same skill set?" Pitts asked.

"Roger," Parsons replied.

One of his commanding officers told us deer hunters like Parsons make the best bomb hunters. With his sharp vision, he was able to find one with a trigger smaller than his index finger: it was a clothes pin.

Moving at about 10 to 15 kilometers an hour, Parsons spotted the pin from 30 meters away.

His first thought: "I thought…trip wire right away. And so I just started looking more. And I saw the wire."

On this day, Parsons was helping the Paladin team clear a road so the base commander could drive safely to a meeting with a local official 12 miles away

Outside a village the "Buffalo" stopped to dig for a bomb because the squad was attacked there just the week before.

There was no bomb and the convoy moved on. But six minutes later, the Buffalo was rocked by an explosion,

The vehicle filled with smoke as two powerful bombs buried in the dirt road exploded, engulfing the vehicle in a huge cloud of dust. Despite their training and experience, the squad never saw it coming.

The bombers got away. The Buffalo, which collapsed in a huge hole, lost its wheel and driveshaft. But all three soldiers inside survived.

Sgt. Cabrera found the detonation wires buried in the road. He and his partner, Specialist Joshua Gross, told us the first bomb hit its target, but the second one - 30 yards away - missed.

"In this instance, did the triggerman make a mistake or were you guys just lucky?" Pitts asked.

"Triggerman made a mistake," Cabrera said.

"And we were lucky. We were lucky he made a mistake," Spc. Gross added.

"Lucky," because the second bomb was designed to kill Cabrera while he was out of his vehicle investigating the first explosion.

"Something with your name on it?" Pitts asked. "Meant to maim or kill you?"

"Yes sir," Cabrera replied.

Roadside bombs are also meant to prove to Afghans the United States, with its superior military, still can't protect its own troops or them.

"One soldier we talked to had been hit by IEDs on the same road, within a half kilometer, three times," Pitts told Col. Jeffrey Jarkowsky.

"Right, well, the enemy is relentless in the way he employs these," the colonel said. "And so you can't stop. Ours is a fight of constant, consistent pressure where we have to be relentless just as that enemy is. This is not a fast fight."

It's warfare at a snail's pace: we averaged just two miles an hour.

We stopped at a farm because Capt. Foster thought there might be a bomb hidden in a field. As darkness fell, Sgt. Cabrera put on his 80-pound bomb suit and took what soldiers call "the long lonely walk."

He set off two explosive charges to clear the road but there was no bomb.

The convoy presumed the road was clear enough to move on when another bomb exploded behind it.

"Looks like we got out of there in time," Foster commented.

Just before midnight, we made it safely to an old farmhouse-turned-military outpost. While his men slept, we talked with Captain Foster about a difficult 17-hour day.

Asked if he accomplished his mission today, Foster said, "Yes sir."

"So after mortars, IEDs, this was a good day?" Pitts asked.

"Yes sir. Everybody came home safe," Foster explained.

"You seem a bit somber. Or just exhausted?" Pitts asked.

"No it's…at the end of the day knowing that all my soldiers are safe, that's when I sit down in a quiet time and thank God for watching over them," Foster said.

Hours later, near the end of their mission, Capt. Foster's men were attacked again.

Around a bend in the road, smoke rising in the distance meant that a massive bomb had exploded under the lead vehicle, just two miles from base. The vehicle appeared to have been totaled.

All three men inside were injured.

Several men and a child in a car nearby were questioned and released. In our two days on the road, the bomb squad encountered five bombs.

Three soldiers were injured, two others shaken up. One U.S. vehicle was damaged, another wrecked.

Not a single bomber was captured or killed.

"Colonel, how would you respond to those people who will look at the mission we went on and say, 'Your troops went out to hunt bombs and they ended up being hunted, that they were hit by bombs as opposed to finding them and defeating all those bombs?'" Pitts asked Col. Jarkowsky.

"We are not 100 percent successful in locating every IED before it detonates. We do have great success with that. On average today, over 60 percent of all IEDs are found before they ever detonate. But the enemy gets a vote. He does have the opportunity to get a lick in. So in this mission, he got some licks in," he replied.

"Do you ever think this is a fight you can't win?" Pitts asked Spc. Joshua Gross. "They go out, they place a bomb, you remove it, the next day they put out another bomb."

"Right. I mean, I try not to think about it too much 'cause it doesn't really help anybody. You know?" he replied.

"What do you think? Is this a fight you can win?" Pitts asked Sgt. Cabrera.

"Beats me," he replied.

"I guess, I guess winning to me is going home, really, after our deployment's done," Gross added.

"Going home alive," Cabrera said.

"That's how you measure success in Afghanistan?" Pitts asked.

"Yes sir," he replied.

Sergeant Cabrera, Specialist Gross and Captain Foster all did make it home alive when their tour ended. But in the past year 16 other bomb squad technicians were not so fortunate.

Earlier this month, they were all honored in a private ceremony during a memorial at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where they had all been trained. Like the thousands of servicemen and women before them, they will be remembered again on this Memorial Day weekend.

Two of the men were in the Army, eight of them were Marines, the Navy lost two men, and there were four men from the Air Force.

Flags that had flown over the memorial were given to family members of the 16 men.

And their names were added to a wall that has the names of hundreds of bomb experts killed in the line of duty dating back to World War II.

Produced by Tom Anderson