Spc. James Gaudio, from Shabbona, Ill., is a combat engineer with Company C, 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. He remotely controls the VNU-4 while clearing large-open spaces between the palm trees in the Jabour area, south of Baghdad, Dec. 15. The grove was being searched by the engineers at the behest of Task Force "Thunder" for Operation Panda Garden. The mission's intent is to deny any caches found in the grove and the farmland it surrounds. The area is suspected of containing mines, unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices.