How do you identify a landmine?

Answer 1

During the Vietnam War, often times US tanks and ACAVs would traverse the same territory...daily. When mounted (riding a tank), the loader would dismount while the TC directed the driver to follow the walking loader, who was now directly in front of the tank or ACAV. As the loader continued walking (slowly) he would be LOOKING at the ground to see if anything was DIFFERENT than yesterday. When he stopped, the tank stopped. He'd start walking again, and maybe with the wave of the hand to follow, the tank would begin following again...until they reached their objective...then he'd remount the tank and they'd go about their merry way...or, they'd park there, until the next orders arrived.

When walking in front of the tank, if the loader had noticed anything DIFFERENT he'd most likely grab a stick and gently raise up the material (his decision, his way) to test how far he could get away with it...to see what it was...he only needed a clue, it wasn't necessary to see the whole object, just enough to put two and two together and decide it was a mine. OR, if the dirt was discolored, that was almost a "given" (a 99% chance there's a mine there). If our tanks have been hitting mines (exploding) routinely the last few weeks, then Engineers with mine sweepers accompanied the tank men. Those took all day to operate and were very very time consuming...even the Engineers didn't like it; they knew the men watching (non-engineers) were becoming impatient. Crewmen manning Patton tanks finally just took to running suspected mined areas over with their tanks, thus exploding them (and damaging the tanks). M-113 ACAVs and M-551 Sheridan tanks were exempted from those missions, as the anti-tank mines would DESTROY those armored vehicles. Anti-Tank mines in Vietnam were circular shaped about 12 to 18 inches across and about 4 to 6 inches tall (thick), and built of sheet metal (packed with charges); a mechanical device was in the center on top. About half were manufactured in Red China and were called CHICOMs; the other half were made in the Soviet Union.