Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker was a two-hour heart racer which showed how stressful the life of a bomb disposal expert in war can be. But while the Hollywood movie was aided by dramatic and tense music, it couldn't replicate the essence of what it's really like to disable bombs hidden beneath the surface.
British soldier and George Cross recipient, Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, has detailed what the job is like in real life.
He's formally known as an ammunition technician or ATO in Afghanistan. His team was deployed to the region in 2009 where he says improvised explosive devices were hidden in every nook and cranny imaginable.
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Hughes says there was roughly 10,000 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) buried in the Helmand Province and it was his job to make sure they didn't go off.
Credit: PA
The Staff Sergeant says he and his team would lay on the ground and carefully dust away sand from a buried plate with just a paintbrush.
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Hughes told the Daily Mail: "Out there in Afghanistan, all the high-tech, life-saving devices we were supposed to have at our disposal were useless. Robots struggled to operate over the rough terrain and were too heavy to carry anywhere."
He says that his main equipment was a pair of pliers for cutting bomb wires, a pistol, field dressing, tourniquet, smoke grenades, morphine, and his paintbrush.
"I took a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that with every bomb removed and neutralised, we were potentially saving one of our own from death and injury, and beating the Taliban at their own game."
Credit: PA
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The West Midlands man says the job was a far cry from the housing estate where he grew up as a kid. He says in his first week in Afghanistan, his team pulled out more than 40 bombs from the ground. But the Taliban would just return and bury more once the team left.
One of the most harrowing experiences was during a dawn search and clear mission. An IED exploded, seriously maiming some of his team, and he was needed to help clear the way.
He recalls: "I searched around with my fingers and uncovered a length of white twin-flex wire. I pulled my snips out from the front of my body armour, held my breath and carefully cut one of the wires."
That rendered the bomb safe, but they weren't out of the woods just yet. An entire network of more than a dozen IEDs was discovered, which he had to navigate around in order to get the wounded soldiers out safely.
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Unfortunately, three soldiers died that day, but thanks to Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, the death toll was contained because of his careful and meticulous work.
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