1. The prober moves to the start point. He wears safety glasses and carries a trip-wire feeler, two 1-meter safe lane marking sticks, and the required cutting tools.
2. The prober places the equipment on the ground in a safe area, off to one side at the start point.
3. The prober adopts either the squatting or prone position and visually searches the ground for trip wires.
4. The prober picks up and places one of the 1-meter white sticks across the edge of the lane at the start point on the safe side of the marking tape or cleared area. If the platoon leader determines that the vegetation is extremely thick and the trip-wire feeler cannot be used, the following procedure is used:
a. The prober returns to the team safe area. The detector executes the test checks for the mine detector and moves forward.
b. The detector adopts a squatting position and picks up his mine detector, holding the search head in a vertical position. He sweeps the front of the vegetation, moving from the safe edge tape and from ground- to above-head level. If he detects a trip wire, he notifies his section sergeant.
c. The detector moves back to the safe area and turns off the mine detector. The prober moves forward and then cuts away at the brush, cutting no more the 8 cm into the minefield. He cuts from safe edge tape to safe edge tape and from top to bottom, cutting the brush as close to the ground as possible.
d. Steps b and c above are repeated until the new lane extends half the length of the trip-wire feeler into the lane. Then, the mine detector drill is executed.
5. The prober adopts the squatting position and picks up the trip-wire feeler, holding it between the thumb and the index finger of the hand with which he will search the area of ground in front of him.
6. Starting at the left side of the lane at a slight angle, the prober slides the feeler along the ground directly in front of him in a straight line the full length of the trip-wire feeler, or as far as he can safely go out in front.
7. The prober then lifts the trip-wire feeler slowly upward until he is in the standing position and the wire feeler has been brought up over his head.
8. A center search of the lane using the trip-wire feeler is conducted in the same manner as described above.
9. The right side of the lane is searched using the trip-wire feeler in the same manner as described above.
10. The fourth iteration of the lane search is conducted in the standing position, walking on either side of the lane and moving the end of the trip-wire feeler on the ground in a straight line, vertically across the lane to the opposite side in a careful manner.
11. The trip-wire feeler is placed on the ground on either side of the lane marking the length of the area searched. It should be placed horizontally into the minefield so that the searched area is no more than 1 meter deep.
12. The cutting tool is then picked up, and the squatting position is adopted.
13. The search area is cleared by cutting grass and small bushes on a horizontal plane as close to the ground as possible.
14. The cutting tool is then placed back in the safe area at the start point, and the second 1-meter white stick is picked up and placed across the lane at the end of the searched area.
15. The prober then picks up all his equipment, except the two 1-meter white sticks, and returns to the safe area. |