EOD technicians sharpen skills at Joint Readiness Training Center

By Staff Sgt. Mark A. Moore II, 2nd Brigade Combat Team JournalistMarch 5, 2015

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1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Explosive ordnance disposal technicians of 754th Ordnance Company (EOD) view unexploded ordnance through the Operator Control Unit of the Talon robot during an eight-day training lane designed to pit critical think skills of team members against simu... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Sgt. Jacob Gaskill, right, explosive ordnance disposal team leader, 754th Ordnance Company (EOD), alongside his team members receive a brief from an OCT (observer / controller - trainer) during an eight-day training lane designed to pit critical-thin... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Sgt. Jacob Gaskill, explosive ordnance disposal team leader, 754th Ordnance Company (EOD), equipped with EOD 8 Bomb Suit and Mind Hound, searches for improvised explosive devices during an eight-day training lane designed to pit critical-thinking ski... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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4 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Pfc. Jack Corkery, explosive ordnance disposal team member, 754th Ordnance Company (EOD), reels in an explosive charge igniter during an eight-day training lane designed to pit critical-thinking skills of team members against simulated real-world exp... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT POLK, La. -- Preparing for a week of simulated combat in support of 2nd Brigade Combat Team's rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center here, explosive ordnance disposal tech-

nicians of 754th Ordnance Company (EOD), Fort Drum, N.Y., executed improvised explosive device training lanes Feb. 9-16.

"Today and for the past seven days we've been training on IEDs, unexploded ordnance (or UXOs), booby traps, land mines and pretty much any explosive hazard you might encounter overseas," said Capt. Timothy Dwyer, company commander.

Designed to cultivate critical thinking skills among EOD technicians, each lane offered six simple or complex inert replications of explosive devices found on battlefields around the world.

To achieve these results, EOD observer - controller / trainers (or OC/Ts) built scenarios based on incidents they had reacted to in combat.

"Each OC/T develops six different IED scenarios," explained Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Steinepreis, an OC/T with 737th OD Company (EOD), Fort Bragg, N.C. "Those scenarios are generally things that you've seen personally, so you replicate them the best you can with the UXOs we have here and at the IED building shop."

With the capabilities to replicate many of these training scenarios at Fort Drum, Dwyer said the value of having unbiased observers is what sets this event apart from others.

"A lot of the training scenarios available can be replicated at home station; the difference is the outside set of eyes and the ability to have agencies who haven't seen our guys run before come in and view our training," Dwyer said. "It's always good to get a completely unbiased, 'don't know who we are, don't report to us and essentially have nothing to do with us' viewpoint. Therefore, (they) can be honest and as abrasive as they feel they need to be when evaluating our company and how we operate."

Similar to deployment manning, Dwyer's company fragmented into predetermined teams of three, spreading out across the training area to operate independently under the direction of their team leader.

The team leader position is not one granted through rank, but one achieved through extensive training.

"Becoming a team leader takes 12 months of apprenticeship and 18 months of training," Dwyer explained. "That team leader is boss on the ground; he is the one in charge, and (he) is expected to operate independently to take care of whatever incident that might come up."

Completing their lanes and preparing for the main exercise, Sgt. Jacob Gaskill and his team of technicians convoyed to Forward Operating Base Forge to support 2nd BCT's ground maneuver elements.

Within the first 24 hours of their arrival, they were called upon to investigate a possible IED inside the FOB's perimeter.

"We received a call about a possible IED located inside of the wire," Gaskill said. "When we arrived on scene, I saw what looked like the base plate of a 155 mm howitzer round under one of the buildings; the placement was out of the ordinary, especially for a simulated IED."

Further reconnaissance revealed that the round was not a simulation, but an unarmed high-explosive howitzer round.

"Overall, the round was pretty safe. There was no fuse attached, and it had not been fired," he explained.

Not authorized to render the ordnance safe due to his training statutes, Gaskill notified Fort Polk EOD personnel, who removed the ordnance.

"There are no battle drills for EOD," Dwyer said. "Every single problem you encounter is unique. You need those critical-thinking and problem-solving skills in order to mitigate those hazards and come out safely on the other side."

While eliminating explosive hazards might be what comes to mind when people think of EOD, in reality their primary focus is to prevent the introduction of devices all together.

"The biggest thing is EOD's ability to collect evidence, biometrics and forensics off the battle space," Dwyer said. "That collection feeds into the legal and targeting cycle to get the people making and emplacing these devices into the legal system. It also helps to build evidence packets against them and expedites their arrest, confinement and conviction."

However, before a conviction is achieved, the evidence passes through three phases of exploitation.

It starts with the EOD technician who packages and ships the device to a level two facility in their theater of operation.

After processing the device for fingerprints, hair and fibers that could pinpoint the attacker, the evidence is sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the final stages of examination.

"Pretty much anything you could possibly think of about a device and the bomb makers that made it, (the FBI will) find it," Dwyer said. "So that feeds directly back into the system to locate these guys, identify them and get them detained."

Overall, explosive ordnance disposal technicians feed into the battlefield circulation of life or death; through training to forensic evidence collection, detention and conviction, EOD techs strive to make the world a safer place one incident at a time.