---
title: "How troops use a combat scythe in Afghanistan"
date: "2020-02-05"
modified: "2020-10-22"
authors:
  - name: "Tim Kirkpatrick"
    link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/tkirkpatrick/"
url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/how-troops-use-a-combat-scythe-in-afghanistan/"
categories:
  - "History"
  - "Marine Corps"
  - "Tactical"
---

# How troops use a combat scythe in Afghanistan

![](<https://www.wearethemighty.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/assets.rbl.ms/17317571/origin.jpg>)

Picture yourself on a foot patrol in Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous countries in the world where the majority of the population hates the fact that you're there.

---

Now, imagine you're the "lead" of that foot patrol (typically the combat engineer who is looking for IEDs buried in the ground) and you spot a suspicious device ahead with a command wire sticking out of the dirt.

For most of us, it's not a good idea to approach, especially if that wire trails off toward a nearby compound — it's a freaking trap. But for troops serving in Afghanistan, it's just another day at the office.

![](<https://www.wearethemighty.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/assets.rbl.ms/17247449/origin.png>)
*Counter-IED teams locate roadside bombs using Valon metal detectors. (Photo from Army.mil)*

Although most IEDs are considered primitively built with limited resources, the grunts on the ground have a clever way of dealing with 'em: the combat scythe.

### Related: [This is what it was like fighting alongside Afghan troops](<https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/what-it-was-like-fighting-with-afghan-troops/>)

Famously known as an agricultural tool, ground pounders use them to conduct a "hands-on" inspection of a potential threat from up to 12-feet away. The operator will extend out the scythe and use its rounded tip to tug and drag out the device for an exam.

![](<https://www.wearethemighty.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/assets.rbl.ms/17247453/origin.jpg>)
*A Marine and his trusty scythe will never run out of batteries. (USMC photo by Cpl. William J. Jackson)*

By deploying his trusty scythe, a troop can safely determine if that bump in the ground is indeed an IED and call for a controlled detonation of the affected area. Of course, if it's a false alarm, then that foot patrol proceeds onward without fear.

Not every IED can be figured out with a solid poking, though. If that IED is trickier than usual, the patrol will call upon the services of Explosive Ordnance Disposal to access and, typically, blow the sh\*t out of the device.

On the bright side, controlled detonations are pretty epic to watch. They're allied forces' way of telling the bad guys ,"Not today, f\*cker."

That is all.

## Author
Tim Kirkpatrick entered the Navy in 2007 as a Hospital Corpsman and deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion 5th Marines in the fall of 2010. Tim now has degrees in both Film Production and Screenwriting. tim.kirkpatrick@wearethemighty.com