Staff Sergeant Chris Fessenden saved the lives of six soldiers in Afghanistan last week, all thanks to a toy his brother sent him.
In 2007, Ernie Fessenden and hobby-store owner Kevin Guy sent Chris, then in Iraq, a radio-controlled model truck, "essentially a souped-up children's toy," fitted with a wireless video camera to help him check for bombs under trucks.
Last week, Chris lent the truck to some soldiers going out on patrol. They used the toy to investigate the area ahead of them, looking for improvised explosive devices. The truck went ahead of the soldiers' armoured car and drove over a trip wire, triggering an estimated 500 pounds of explosives.
Despite the explosion, no one was hurt.
Had the truck not gone before them, the soldiers would have likely triggered it themselves.
Chris emailed his brother to tell him the news.
"At first I was just absolutely shocked," Ernie told TODAY.com. "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?' "
Ernie and Guy have since shipped Chris two more trucks.
"It's like we went over to the bad guys and stuck a stick in their eye with a toy," Guy said. "They are now jamming the radio frequency of the trucks, but we were on top of that. We've already combated that."
On Monday, Guy launched Trucks to Troops, a site where people can help send remote-control trucks to soldiers.
(Photo: Courtesy of Ernie Fessenden/Trucks for Troops)
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