Photo: Christopher Gannon/The Register
They cleared roads for troops in Afghanistan until a year ago. Head on a swivel. Inspecting every groove in the dirt road. Studying every rock.
Bomb hunters, they called themselves.
Such was the job’s importance and risk that regular Army guys called the Reserves in the 402nd Engineer Company of Des Moines something else:
“Rock stars,” said Patrick Perkins — or foolish.
Perkins sat on a pickup truck gate Monday near Guthrie Center, guzzling a huge can of Monster energy drink. Nick Mason, his brother in arms with the U.S. Army Reserves, put in a big chew of tobacco. They painted their faces and put on camouflage gear.
This time, they were hunting deer, not bombs.
Hunting helps them. It’s helped a lot of combat veterans coming back home, and it’s why a growing number of organizations are taking veterans out to hunt, including Perkins’ nonprofit, Heroes Hunting.
They can talk to each other about the day a bomb exploded. Or how they felt when they came home and their girlfriend introduced them as a combat vet, and people treated them like they had cancer or expected them to explode with rage, said Perkins, 39, of Grimes.
If he told his parents some of what he saw or laughed at in the war, said Mason, 27, of Des Moines, this is what they would say: “What is wrong with my son?”
Nothing is wrong that you can see. Neither Mason nor Perkins suffered serious physical injuries. But they changed.
