CAMP DAWSON, W.Va. – U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians honed their lifesaving and mission-enabling skills with interagency bomb squads during a nationwide training exercise.
During four Exercise Raven’s Challenge iterations, nearly 100 Army EOD technicians from the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command’s 52nd EOD Group, 71st EOD Group and 48th Chemical Brigade trained with federal, state and local bomb squad personnel.
Raven’s Challenge is a routine exercise designed to prepare EOD techs and public service bomb squads to defeat Improvised Explosive Devices.
From April to July 2025, Raven’s Challenge took place in Catoosa Springs, Georgia; Camp Gruber, Oklahoma; Fort Carson, Colorado; and Camp Dawson, West Virginia.
EOD Soldiers from 722nd EOD Company, 754th EOD Company, 55th EOD Company, 192nd EOD Battalion, 52nd EOD Group, and the 25th Chemical Company, 83rd Chemical Battalion, 48th Chemical Brigade, participated in the exercise at Camp Dawson, West Virginia.
The 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command is the U.S. military’s premier multifunctional and deployable CBRNE formation.
Soldiers and Army civilians from the 20th CBRNE Command deploy from 19 bases in 16 states to confront and defeat the world’s most dangerous hazards in support of joint, interagency and multinational operations.
As the U.S. Army’s explosive experts, EOD technicians confront and defeat everything from hand grenades to nuclear weapons.
After defeating hundreds of thousands of Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and Afghanistan together with joint service EOD techs, Army EOD technicians from the 20th CBRNE Command are training to support ground forces during large-scale combat operations.
EOD techs from the 20th CBRNE Command also routinely support federal, state and local law enforcement bomb squads when unexploded military munitions are discovered.
EOD techs help to save lives, prevent suffering and protect property during Defense Support of Civil Authorities missions.
Since civilian bomb squads are not authorized to work on military munitions due to the Military Munitions Rule in the Code of Federal Regulations, joint service EOD technicians are called when old military munitions are discovered off base.
Per DoD Directive 3025.18, DoD Instruction 3025.21 and Joint Publication 3-42, EOD technicians are the only Department of Defense personnel authorized to respond and render safe unexploded munitions and ordnance.
During the past two years, EOD techs from the 20th CBRNE Command have responded to an average of 1,500 discovered military munitions a year off-post and on-post.
EOD techs from the 20th CBRNE Command also conduct Very Important Person Protection Support Activity missions, providing protection to the president, first lady, vice president and foreign heads of states.
1st Lt. Joseph T. Desalis, the operations officer from the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based 192nd EOD Battalion, said the exercise increased the readiness of the bomb squad personnel involved.
“The highlight of the exercise was watching 96 Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians from all over the East Coast come together and perform for a common goal: learning techniques and methods from other techs,” said Desalis. “Being able to combine military experience with public service departments is crucial for homeland response efforts within the community.”
“Combined training between military Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units and civilian law enforcement agencies - such as bomb squads, SWAT and emergency response teams - provides a powerful way to improve readiness, coordination and effectiveness for both groups. Some of the benefits include shared Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs). This matters because in joint operations seamless cooperation is critical to mission success and safety,” said Desalis.
A native of Gladys, Virginia, Desalis served as an enlisted Army Military Policeman for 12 years and deployed to Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After graduating from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, he was commissioned through ROTC as an Army EOD officer.
“Another benefit (of the exercise) is cross-domain threat familiarity, being exposed to each other’s threat environment prepares both sides for evolving hybrid threat, including those seen in domestic terrorism or homeland response missions,” said Desalis.
“Combined EOD training builds a force-multiplying relationship between the military and civilian agencies,” said Desalis. “It cultivates operational synergy, accelerates decision making and ultimately saves lives by creating a united front against explosive threats in any domain.”
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