Army Forensics IED boneyard and kidnapped translator

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]This is video from my time as a security contractor.

[00:00:04]This is early at work. I want to show you that I was sweating already because it's hotter than Hades over there.

[00:00:11]That balloon right there is what I check every day. I look up into the sky and see if the balloon is up or down. If the eye in the sky is down, then we do not have good visibility of what's around us.

[00:00:25]We have drones and such, too. So, it's not We'll figure out if somebody's trying to attack us. But anyway, here's my work day. This is a rainy day at Canar uh air station. This is uh the general's compound here.

[00:00:42]Um, in these buildings are hospital, classrooms, um, radio rooms, just like a little mini mini base. They have armories.

[00:01:00]Um, they're not allowed to go uh carry their their pistols and stuff around on base unless they are having a mission.

[00:01:09]So then they're handed out weapons um just the same as us was we have to we check out our weapons when we go onto that compound and we cannot have them off of base.

[00:01:22]It's one of the strange things as a security uh contractor aka guardian angel. I think guardian angel is what people refer to it as more. It's just static and personnel security.

[00:01:37]So static security mean we're going to stay in one general area and protect it, defend it. And then personnel security could be like escorting people on and off base.

[00:01:50]Dealing with Afghanis all the time was tricky. In this video right now, our translator is having a conversation with our translate the other translator who has been kidnapped. Yes, this is real time. If you speak Dari, you could understand. So, uh, he he doesn't show up to work, right?

[00:02:12]And we're like, what is going on, brother? Everybody's trying to call him.

[00:02:16]Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Finally, he he's calling right here.

[00:02:22]And we're like, uhoh. You know, he's been compromised.

[00:02:26]The Taliban will will uh that's how they infiltrate people. They just kidnap them off the street if they see him. Our translators had a very tricky life and when one of them went missing, it was a big deal.

[00:02:40]We would all kind of freak out like it's a security risk, right?

[00:02:45]So, we're trying to find this guy, you know, he's saying he's kidnapped and the ransom is $350 American.

[00:02:55]We're like, that's a low price.

[00:02:58]Anyway, two days later, we we're not negotiating with terrorists or whoever.

[00:03:06]Two days later, this dude shows up to base.

[00:03:10]He gets through two checkpoints and there's a bolo out for for him. Be on the lookout, meaning we don't know if he's been compromised. If he comes through here, he might have a bomb vest. This dude gets all the way to our freaking gate and he's looking me in the eyes.

[00:03:31]I was like, "Do I shoot this guy?"

[00:03:35]The person I was standing watch with was an army person or infantry and literally put my weapon in condition one. My my AK in condition one. He reached over, clicked it up. He was clicked up, too.

[00:03:51]And we're like, "We can't let you through. You got to go, dude."

[00:03:56]I don't know how how they got PLA past the black gate, but um he didn't I don't think so. He ended up walking away cuz he wouldn't let him in. And he was wearing his uh his traditional the dress that the Afghan men wear, the white long thing. So, it's hard you can hide a lot of stuff under there. He was all disheveled and unshaven, which was unlikely of him. The the translators keep a pretty good standard. Um yeah. So anyway, this is a day off. Um so the long long story short, the Afghan our translator had just left the base and was never heard of again from again.

[00:04:40]That's that this is the Afghan National Boneyard for um exploded vehicles. The Taliban went after the Afghan National Army viciously and um they blew them up a lot.

[00:04:57]So much that we have our own boneyard for them. And we also study how um blasts work, right? Every bomb that we encountered over there, the army scooped up and did intelligence on it.

[00:05:15]Every car that we see, every vehicle, the Americans are doing intelligence on it. How does this glass work? Why is it burning?

[00:05:24]Um, you can see a lot of the bullet holes right in the middle of the glass.

[00:05:35]That glass is pretty powerful.

[00:05:39]But yeah, there's rows and rows of them.

[00:05:42]The army actually runs a cannon out of here, a huge cannon. And at night, you'll hear the cannons blast sometimes.

[00:05:51]I don't really know the specifics of it, but when those cannons would go off, it' be like, "Go get them, army." Happy, you know, cuz if they're not going off, then somebody else is there, you know, can come in. Anyway, there's an ambulance, as you can see, shot to heck.

[00:06:09]probably got hit with a IED and ambushed.

[00:06:17]Huh.

[00:06:18]Brutal. A brutal way to die. It gets I mean you're seeing some of the paint on here bubbled up. This is you know on the Hummers and the M wrap. You'll see this right here. The paint is expensive and it's like super flameroof.

[00:06:37]It doesn't bubble up unless something is so hot that it's unbearable.

[00:06:42]So, that was that was my day and day off in the military. Two pretty unique scenarios, but um yeah, it was fun. God bless you. Good night.