TV Sitcom About British EOD Team is the Bomb-diggity

Producers of "Bluestone 42," a 30-minute sitcom about a British Explosive Ordnance Disposal (E.O.D.) team operating in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, have announced a Christmas-themed special will air on December 23.

The 8-episode series debuted in March 2013 on BBC Three. A second season is reportedly also in production for 2014.

Click here for a short teaser video on YouTube. (Note: NOT suitable for work, due to profanity)

The series takes its name from the team's callsign, "Bluestone-Four-Two." The radio-correct pronunciation of "42" is the first of many military details the writers get right. You might even say that "Bluestone-42" has achieved the Holy Grail of military comedy: It's smart, snarky, and smacks of the real deal downrange.

The cast of characters, for example, will be funny and familiar to military veterans: Cpl. Lynda Bird is a hard-charging one-of-the-boys, who takes her job as the squad's electronic countermeasures (E.C.M.) expert—the "bleep"—very seriously. She also has a softer side, however, and develops an emotional attachment to "Arthur" the robot.

Female chaplain Maj. Mary Greenstock fights off the romantic advances of Ammunition Technical Officer Capt. Nick Medhurst, as well as an unhealthy love of gambling, while handing out sweets and spirituality. She also organizes morale-building events.

Cpl. Christian "Millsy" Mills loves to create graphs, After-Action Reports, and paperwork that is both necessary and unnecessary.

Privates "Mac" and "Rocket" pass the downtime by inventing extreme sports such as "Total Fencing Deluxe", or by arguing about topics such as the true purpose of a rifles' bipod grip while on guard duty.

There are more characters, but you get the idea ...

Some of the accents and allied-army jargon are occasionally a bit hard to parse, but the language used in the series has neither been dumbed-down or cleaned-up. It is, in fact, refreshingly realistic. The troops joke openly about bodily functions and self-gratification. They engage in all sorts of ribbing and ribaldry, and often push the joke beyond the tasteful or appropriate. For all the childish behavior, however, the characters also act like soldiers, apologize as necessary, and drive on with the mission.

The vibe, in short, is equal parts "Generation Kill" (2008), "M*A*S*H" (1972), and "Bomb Patrol Afghanistan" (2011).

The show even gets the atmospherics correct: The doors are plywood. The furniture is rubbish. The heat is unbearable. The missions and menus are repetitive. Only your teammates can help you get through the days downrange, and they're being insufferable, too.

Oh, and there's profanity. Lots of profanity. Definitely not suitable for (civilian) work. Some of it is even understandable through all the brogue. And all of it is appropriate.

The BBC Three website offers plenty "Bluetooth 42" promo clips on its website, as well as wonderfully detailed supporting materials. Consider, for example, this gallery of letters from home, or candid shots of the characters.

For fans in the United States, the series is available only as an imported Region 2 DVD. Full episodes might be available, however, through a search of YouTube or other video sites.

The 'Mouth of the Dragon'

In a particularly powerful piece of reporting earlier this week, freelance journalist Michael Yon describes the death of U.S. Army Spc. Adam Ray, 23, in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. Ray was killed, and others injured, while checking culverts for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Here in the American Midwest, culverts are as common as cows and crops. The pipes crossing under our roads allow water to pass from one ditch, creek, or field to another. "In safe countries," writes Yon, "drivers pay as little attention to culverts as we would to telephone poles."

In the war zone that is Afghanistan, life and limb depend on noticing normally mundane things like culverts. They are a favorite hiding spot for the Taliban to plant bombs intended to kill Americans driving the roads. Hundreds, even thousands of pounds of explosives can be stuffed inside, launching our vehicles into the sky, flipping them over and over, sometimes killing all. And so, in some areas, soldiers on missions must stop dozens of times to check culverts for explosives. Since we do this every day in front of thousands of Afghans, they know our patterns. In addition to planting bombs in culverts, they plant mines and other bombs near culverts, to get men who stop to check.

Every year, my neighborhood's homeowners association has to pay someone to clear the branches and brambles away from our drains and culverts, in order to prevent flooding. That's about all the thought we give them. Think about worrying about every culvert you and your friends drive over every day, or sticking your face into one or a hundred such holes, in order to seek out explosives.

A recent Missouri National Guard news release described the efforts of U.S. veteran Mike Woodgerd, now working as a contractor in Afghanistan, helping to install "Solerno boxes" onto road culverts. "Every time our guys have to dismount and actually look into those culverts, they are staring into the mouth of the dragon," Woodgerd told Army Sgt. Jon E. Dougherty.
The metal devices help prevent emplacement of IEDs, which helps keep soldiers away from the mouth of the dragon. Recently, Woodgerd was working in Khost Province with a route-clearance unit from Missouri. The National Guard-approved news article describes the action:

[Army 1st Lt.] Miller's platoon took just four hours to deploy the first two boxes, an operation that immediately drew the attention--and concern--of local Afghans. Shortly after the combat engineers began working, an elder from a nearby village ventured out alone to check on the commotion. He was met by Miller and by Army Capt. Bryan Sayer, commander of the 1141st [Engineer Company, Missouri Army National Guard].

It seems he was primarily concerned that the devices would impede or cut off the flow of water through the culvert--water that is vital to farming in this arid environment. But the soldier-diplomats quickly assuaged the elder's concerns by explaining that the denial system would hinder insurgents but not hamper the flow of water.

Part of the plan to keep the boxes in place depends on the trust and support of the local people, who need to know they are being put there to help protect them as well as U.S. and NATO forces. Soon after, crowds that had gathered at the periphery began to close in on the American soldiers, the elder's acceptance serving as the icebreaker.

Please click over to Michael Yon's website, and read the rest of his article about Ray. His final, Ernie-Pyle-like paragraph is heartbreaking in its mundanity. It's also something that I wish I could've written, and hope I never have to. Yon works for himself, by the way--you can keep him in business by donating to the cause. We need more eyes on the ground like his.

Housekeeping and Engineering

Every time I think I've established a new battle rhythm, something else comes along to muck it up. This past week, it was a visit from Omah and Opah Sherpa. Like the Air Force says, "Any landing (and parental visit) you can walk away from is a good one." They walked away with a few more grandparenting memories and war stories, and Household-6 and I walked away with a number of remodeling projects nearly finished. And there was much rejoicing.

We also got a chance to talk face-to-face with our parents, about our needs and fears and expectations for the pending deployment. We even talked in more detail than usual about the possible mission. (As an old radio guy, Sherpa refuses to discuss official news over cell phones, cordless phones, and baby monitors. Ever hack one of those Bearcat scanners? You might as well announce personal secrets and credit card numbers to the neighbors via a public address system. Or in the New York Times. Or on one of those ding-dang Internet blogs I keep hearing about.)

Sherpa grew up in an active-duty military family, so everyone was pretty familiar with the drill: You can't say when or where or how, because everything is a secret and, even if it wasn't, it will change 50 times and still be wrong. So it's "hurry up and stew."

I should mention here that there will be more Sherpa news happening in the next few days. Nothing big, but thought I'd try that "foreshadowing" thing I remember from high school English.

In the meantime, I've finally managed to follow-through on a few suggestions made by some supportive commenters and fellow mil-bloggers. Coffeypot, a salty blog-dog and storyteller, suggested the installation of the Blogger/Blogspot/Google Friend Connect "follower" widget in the Red Bull Rising sidebar. That's it, right over there. Ky Woman, of whom I've already sung many praises, helped expedite an introduction over at Milblogging.com. Milblogging.com is a perfect place to start a search for bloggers with past or current experiences, depending on where you're heading in the world. I plan to use it a lot in the coming months.

Ky Woman also urged me to link the Red Bull Rising blog with a Facebook page. I'd had some technical difficulties earlier, but they're solved now. See my mug over there, by that Facebook button? Click it.

I'm still waiting for this whole Internet fad to blow over, but I've noticed that some younger soldiers don't even e-mail anymore--it's all texting and Twittering and Facebooking. Some Iowa National Guard units use Facebook pages as their primary means of communicating routine information with soldiers and families. There's no official policy out there, for or against the practice. A short pro-Facebook editorial follows, however: If people are already using the tool, and it doesn't hurt security, use the darn tool. Don't stick it behind layers and layers of bandwidth-chewing passwords and card readers and then wonder why people aren't getting your messages.

End of mini-sermon.

So, dear reader, whether you read blogs by "following" via Blogger, via a Facebook fan page, via some sort of RSS reader, or just plain old-fashioned web-browsing, I hope you find this ongoing project variously useful, insightful, and/or entertaining. Thanks for your suggestions, and your support, and for recommending Red Bull Rising to anyone who might find it of interest.

Like my Engineer buddies say, "Essayons."