“One Wrong Move and You’ll Turn Into Red Mist”

The life of a bomb disposal expert is filled with precise execution amidst constant fear. Any misstep could detonate the device, and likely kill the disposal expert and anyone nearby. Kim Hughes, who was awarded the George Cross, one of Britain’s highest honors, by the Queen, displayed remarkable heroism during his deployment to save the A Company of the 2 Rifles battlegroup of Afghanistan in 2009. 

A Company had been deployed in advance of a larger force to identify a safe emergency landing site. While investigating a site, a soldier tripped an IED, killing several soldiers and wounding much of the group. Hughes rushed in to help save the wounded soldiers. On reaching the first wounded soldier, he found a hidden IED about 1 meter away from the fallen soldier. Following the strict rules of operation, he immediately went to work on disabling the device without protective gear, despite the heightened risks, because of the chance of mass casualties. He stated how “the moment you lose respect for a device is when things go wrong.” After successfully disabling it, he found two more IEDs nearby the wounded soldiers, and disabled them all. The wounded soldiers were all evacuated safely, and Hughes continued to disable four more IEDs in the area. Overall, he disabled 119 bombs during his six month tour in Afghanistan.

In order to do this and stay level-headed, Hughes had to battle the natural reflex to focus on the potential consequences of failure and instead stay focused on the task at hand. Psychologists call this fight between goal-directed attention systems and stimulus-directed attention systems Attentional Control Theory. In order to expertly defuse those 119 bombs, Hughes had to have exceptional control over this element of the brain, staying focused on the goal rather than the risks. Fortunately for us, he subsequently went on to become an instructor for future generations of bomb disposal experts.