Officer Jay - "A Claymore Mine, a Herd of Goats, and a Fire"

"Like with first responders: 'Oh, what was the craziest call you've been on?' Like we don't wanna talk about that. We want to tell the fun stories. We want to tell, ‘Oh, this one day this happened, and it was funny!' Where I think a lot of people in our profession, they always forget to tell those fun stories to the regular civilian, and I think it's pretty important." – Officer Jay

A claymore mine, a herd of goats, and a fire: what could go wrong?

It was June 2006, and Jay was on his third deployment in Afghanistan. As part of a patrol providing overwatch for a mission, Jay and his fellow unit members had received intelligence alerting them to expect combat and, in anticipation of activity, he set up a trip flare and a claymore mine – a conglomeration of explosives and 700 ball bearings sandwiched inside a curved, rectangular plastic case. But after the trip flare had been triggered and the mine subsequently detonated, the patrol members quickly realized that no amount of intel could have predicted the sure-footed enemy who had really been behind the looming ambush.

Join former paramedic/firefighter and host Phil Klein as he shares the mic with returning guest Officer Jay who, prior to retiring after his 12-year career in law enforcement, served for four years in the Marine Corps. Jay discusses how civilian curiosity often involves hearing the worst, when many first responders and military members often have entertaining, even hilarious stories like this one that are just as important to share. Don’t forget, you can check out Officer Jay’s previous story from the road, Healing, in season four.

Thank you for listening! Please take a moment to give Stories From the Road a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or whichever platform you use to listen. Join us next week for the final episode of season five. 

Support the show