A Hero For All of Us

Lt. Mark Dyer, whose efforts to save the lives of our front line troops placed him well outside his normal comfort zone and on the front lines himself, serves as an inspiration of true leadership to the rest of the Navy. A well deserved Bronze Star in my opinion.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i20v-t-7KTRmwFrYRLazM_UkifTAD8VH116G0

An excerpt:

In some cases, the soldiers took the jamming devices on patrols thinking that it was working when it was not because it had not been properly maintained. In other cases, they left the equipment behind because they didn't want to hassle with complicated technology, Thomas said.

"The biggest battle I faced was they didn't understand how it worked," he said. "We conducted the training on how to properly utilize it and made it a way of life."

Thomas said the technology works by "basically providing a protective bubble around a vehicle," jamming incoming signals and blocking the remote detonation of bombs.

To convince the soldiers and Marines the equipment could work, Thomas and Dye had to leave the relative safety of their bases and go on regular patrols with the troops into surrounding towns.

"I'm not used to being that close to the bad guy," Thomas said.

On Dye's first night outside of the base, his convoy hit a cluster of IEDs and the jamming technology stopped the chain-reaction explosion. Part of the first vehicle was hit, but no one was injured.

It was the first in a series of successes that led the troops to rely on the technology.

Keep up the good work, Lt.