By Zachary Roth | The Lookout
In 2007, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Christopher Fessenden received a gift from his brother Ernie, back home in Rochester, Minnesota: a radio-controlled model truck with a wireless video camera.
Last week, says Fessenden, who's now stationed in Afghanistan after doing tours in Iraq, the gift came in handy. It
saved the lives of six of his comrades, he told ABC News.
Fessenden used the toy truck to run ahead of him and his fellow soldiers to scout for roadside bombs when they were on patrol. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been a major source of U.S. casualties in both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Fessenden said that last week he had loaned the truck to a group of six soldiers who were going out on a patrol. At one point, it got tangled in a trip wire, setting off a bomb. The soldiers, in a Humvee behind the remote-controlled truck, were unhurt. Had it not been for that model truck, it would have been the real one--the Humvee--that set off the explosive, likely meaning the soldiers would have been killed.
