He saved six soldiers’ lives — with a child’s toy
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By Scott Stump
TODAY.com contributor
updated 8/9/2011 11:43:34 AM ET
When he needed a way to help ensure his brother would come home safe from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ernie Fessenden didn’t resort to rocket science. Instead, he turned to toys.
Teaming up with local hobby store owner Kevin Guy, the Rochester, Minn., resident employed some good old-fashioned American ingenuity to solve the problem. And their simple invention, using a toy truck, has saved the lives of six soldiers.
In 2007, Fessenden and Guy sent Fessenden’s brother, Staff Sgt. Chris Fessenden, a radio-controlled (RC) model truck outfitted with a wireless video camera to help him check for bombs under trucks and search for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on roadsides in Iraq. That same remote-control truck, essentially a souped-up children’s toy, ended up preventing the potential deaths of six soldiers two weeks ago in Afghanistan, as Chris detailed in an email to Ernie.
Courtesy of Ernie Fessenden
The radio-controlled model truck that triggered an explosive that could have killed six soldiers in Afghanistan is essentially a souped-up toy.
“At first I was just absolutely shocked,’’ Ernie told TODAY.com in a phone interview. “It could have been [Chris] out there, so first I'm concerned with that, and I hope nothing like that ever happens to any of the soldiers. Then after that it was, ‘Do you need another truck?’ ’’
Tragedy averted
Chris had lent the model truck to a group of fellow soldiers who were going out on a patrol. They used the toy, which can go up to 30 miles per hour, to scout the area ahead of them for potential IEDs.
When the toy truck zipped out in front of the soldiers’ armored Humvee, it became enmeshed in a trip wire on the road that triggered what was estimated to be 500 pounds of explosives. The bomb exploded, but none of the soldiers was hurt.
