AFMC Command News

EOD training facility gets realistic

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Mike Meares
  • 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
As evidenced from the war on terrorism, terrorists who have limited resources creatively use improvised explosive devices to wreak havoc on their targets.

The Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal has a new $7 million facility, the Advanced Improvised Explosive Device Disposal facility, to teach EOD technicians from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and select other agencies to successfully thwart the efforts of terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"What we were finding is the training we are doing here existed at the unit level," said U.S. Navy Lt. David Blauser, AIEDD division officer. "What we've done is put that together and formalized it. By having the joint services come here and train together, we get a well-trained technician."

The facility is designed to train and evaluate the ability to diagnose, disable, contain and dispose of sophisticated IEDs in many environments ranging from battlefield operations in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom to peacekeeping operations and homeland defense.

According to Lieutenant Blauser, the instructors at the new school are taking well-trained EOD technicians and making them better by teaching them how to use their tools and skills more effectively.

The school includes an array of scenarios designed to give already experienced bomb disposal technicians more hands-on training. The training facility has realistic settings, including a library, gas station, bank, airport terminal and a farm.

"There's no faking it now," said an Army staff sergeant and AIEDD instructor. "We give (the students) as much realism as possible, regardless of military branch."

In one scenario, an EOD team dealt with a suspicious device in a simulated airport terminal. A Navy chief petty officer cautiously entered the facility to take X-rays of the suspected device. The X-rays provided the EOD team with the information they needed to formulate a plan for the suspected device.

At another location, a team responded with a robot to a reported suspicious backpack in a library building at the facility.

"If we go into a library and blow a device up, we have done (the terrorist's) job for them," said an Army sergeant first class and AIEDD instructor.

An Air Force staff sergeant sat at a console, more than 100 yards away from the library, and controlled a robot using live video feeds from cameras on the machine. After assessing the situation and determining a course of action, they used the robot to remove the item, minimizing the risk and potential loss of life.

"Every robot that goes down there is one less person who doesn't have to be exposed to that hazard," said an Air Force staff sergeant and AIEDD instructor. "It's dangerous to send people down range."

Finishing their inaugural class Nov. 23, the three-week course trains 24 technicians at a time. All students are graduates of the Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal Basic EOD course. The basic course is 26 weeks for the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps technician and 37 weeks for the Navy. Typically, EOD technicians who attend the AIEDD course have more than three years of operational experience and several deployments on their resume.

Suicide bombers, roadside bombs and car bombs are just a few dangers U.S. military troops deal with every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. The danger is even greater for the EOD technicians as they put their lives on the line every time they come in contact with a suspicious device. It's a race against time for them and a chance to save many lives in the process.

"All danger is relative because every job has some dangers," said a Navy petty officer first class and AIEDD instructor. "It's only dangerous if you are uneducated in your tactics, techniques and procedures."