thedrifter
05-12-07, 11:21 AM
Military trains its bomb squads at Eglin
By Melissa Nelson - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday May 12, 2007 9:50:21 EDT
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The sprawling outdoor range where U.S. military bomb technicians learn their craft is oddly quiet.
Students don’t practice defusing bombs with helicopters hovering, civilians screaming or snipers taking aim — that will come later when they are working on live bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Battle-hardened instructors at the Kauffman Explosives Ordnance Disposal Training Complex can teach techniques, but they cannot teach the calm that comes from experience.
“This isn’t Heartbreak Ridge,” said Army Sgt. Ted Cheairs, an instructor, referring to a 1986 Clint Eastwood film about Marine training. “I cannot take an AK47 and shoot at them while they are working, but if you ask any one of those students right now what their stress level is while they are working out here — on a scale of one to 10, they’d tell you at least a seven.”
The Navy-operated school at Eglin Air Force Base trains soldiers, sailors and airmen for one of the military’s most high-demand jobs — defusing deadly improvised explosive devices and other bombs. The stakes are high — 2006 marked the deadliest year for U.S. military bomb technicians in four decades and IEDs are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Navy says about 1,000 U.S. students and 150 foreign students graduate from the eight-month school annually, about 31 percent of those who enter.
Instructors say the Marines, Army Rangers, Navy divers and others who attend often lack the right combination of book smarts, technical savvy and calm under pressure.
At the outdoor range where groups of students practice under camouflaged netting, Army Sgt. Baylin Oswalt, 31, watches as a student tries to disarm a dummy rocket. The responsibility of the job forces young soldiers, most under 25 years old, to grow up fast, he said.
“These are not your typical young kids. These students, they mature as much here in three or four months as someone their age normally would in three or four years,” said Oswalt, who has served as an explosives ordnance disposal technician in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He will be deployed again this fall.
Students are reminded daily how deadly the job the job is — a memorial wall stands across from the school’s entrance, listing all U.S. military bomb technicians killed in combat. In 2006, 15 died — the deadliest year for bomb techs since 1945, the last year of World War II. Four more have died this year.
The school added the 2006 names to the wall last month in a ceremony attended by many of the families of the dead.
Oswalt taught one of those killed last year and served in combat with another.
“This school is about the rudimentary skills,” he said. “We know that when you are in combat, you never know what could go wrong.”
Detonation cords, tape, time fuses, blasting cap simulators, wrapping foil, a tape measure, calipers, a small mirror on a bent metal handle, a tiny paint brush — these are some of the tools the students carry with them on the practice range.
They will carry the same supplies into combat.
With the mirror they look underneath a car or other object to inspect an explosive; the tiny paint brush is used to wipe dirt from a serial number or other identifying mark on an explosive; the tape measure and calipers help measure the size of the device.
Army Spec. Christina Ruiz DeVelasco carefully removes items from her tool kit as she prepares to defuse a practice bomb in front of her instructors.
The 22-year-old from Brownsville, Texas, was deployed as military police officer in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. She applied to the EOD school after watching the bomb technicians on the job.
“I never saw an EOD tech that wasn’t smiling, that wasn’t happy,” she said.
Becoming an EOD tech herself will require her full dedication.
“It’s not easy. You cannot be distracted or you will never get through here,” she said.
Oswalt has taught many students who have more “book smarts” than “technical smarts” and he has taught many students whose skills are reversed.
“And then you have the ones and twos who are brilliant, who are book smart and mechanically inclined,” he said.
Navy Lt. Stephen Andros already is an elite diver, but learning to become a bomb technician is more difficult, he said. Navy dive school is often likened to sucking water through a hose, he said.
“EOD school is like a fire hose because that’s how much information you are taking in,” he said.
Andros didn’t graduate with his original EOD class after he made a mistake defusing one dummy bomb during a timed test at the practice range. He had to retake some of his courses.
“When you go out on the range, your nerves get to you and you have to get that under control. Time is the biggest tactic [instructors] use against us,” he said.
Andros also knows the deadly stakes of the job — he was a friend of Navy Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga, one of the techs who died last year. Andros escorted Darga’s family at last month’s memorial ceremony.
Army Spec. Travis Keenan, 24, previously served in Iraq and first worked with EOD technicians while traveling in a convoy that came across a roadside bomb. The technicians defused the IED. He enrolled in the school.
“I just thought [being a bomb technician] was something more important than what I was doing,” said Keenan, who joked with his fellow students and did push-ups during a break on the practice range.
“You are saving peoples’ lives, making things that kill people safe,” he said.
Ellie
By Melissa Nelson - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday May 12, 2007 9:50:21 EDT
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The sprawling outdoor range where U.S. military bomb technicians learn their craft is oddly quiet.
Students don’t practice defusing bombs with helicopters hovering, civilians screaming or snipers taking aim — that will come later when they are working on live bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Battle-hardened instructors at the Kauffman Explosives Ordnance Disposal Training Complex can teach techniques, but they cannot teach the calm that comes from experience.
“This isn’t Heartbreak Ridge,” said Army Sgt. Ted Cheairs, an instructor, referring to a 1986 Clint Eastwood film about Marine training. “I cannot take an AK47 and shoot at them while they are working, but if you ask any one of those students right now what their stress level is while they are working out here — on a scale of one to 10, they’d tell you at least a seven.”
The Navy-operated school at Eglin Air Force Base trains soldiers, sailors and airmen for one of the military’s most high-demand jobs — defusing deadly improvised explosive devices and other bombs. The stakes are high — 2006 marked the deadliest year for U.S. military bomb technicians in four decades and IEDs are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Navy says about 1,000 U.S. students and 150 foreign students graduate from the eight-month school annually, about 31 percent of those who enter.
Instructors say the Marines, Army Rangers, Navy divers and others who attend often lack the right combination of book smarts, technical savvy and calm under pressure.
At the outdoor range where groups of students practice under camouflaged netting, Army Sgt. Baylin Oswalt, 31, watches as a student tries to disarm a dummy rocket. The responsibility of the job forces young soldiers, most under 25 years old, to grow up fast, he said.
“These are not your typical young kids. These students, they mature as much here in three or four months as someone their age normally would in three or four years,” said Oswalt, who has served as an explosives ordnance disposal technician in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He will be deployed again this fall.
Students are reminded daily how deadly the job the job is — a memorial wall stands across from the school’s entrance, listing all U.S. military bomb technicians killed in combat. In 2006, 15 died — the deadliest year for bomb techs since 1945, the last year of World War II. Four more have died this year.
The school added the 2006 names to the wall last month in a ceremony attended by many of the families of the dead.
Oswalt taught one of those killed last year and served in combat with another.
“This school is about the rudimentary skills,” he said. “We know that when you are in combat, you never know what could go wrong.”
Detonation cords, tape, time fuses, blasting cap simulators, wrapping foil, a tape measure, calipers, a small mirror on a bent metal handle, a tiny paint brush — these are some of the tools the students carry with them on the practice range.
They will carry the same supplies into combat.
With the mirror they look underneath a car or other object to inspect an explosive; the tiny paint brush is used to wipe dirt from a serial number or other identifying mark on an explosive; the tape measure and calipers help measure the size of the device.
Army Spec. Christina Ruiz DeVelasco carefully removes items from her tool kit as she prepares to defuse a practice bomb in front of her instructors.
The 22-year-old from Brownsville, Texas, was deployed as military police officer in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. She applied to the EOD school after watching the bomb technicians on the job.
“I never saw an EOD tech that wasn’t smiling, that wasn’t happy,” she said.
Becoming an EOD tech herself will require her full dedication.
“It’s not easy. You cannot be distracted or you will never get through here,” she said.
Oswalt has taught many students who have more “book smarts” than “technical smarts” and he has taught many students whose skills are reversed.
“And then you have the ones and twos who are brilliant, who are book smart and mechanically inclined,” he said.
Navy Lt. Stephen Andros already is an elite diver, but learning to become a bomb technician is more difficult, he said. Navy dive school is often likened to sucking water through a hose, he said.
“EOD school is like a fire hose because that’s how much information you are taking in,” he said.
Andros didn’t graduate with his original EOD class after he made a mistake defusing one dummy bomb during a timed test at the practice range. He had to retake some of his courses.
“When you go out on the range, your nerves get to you and you have to get that under control. Time is the biggest tactic [instructors] use against us,” he said.
Andros also knows the deadly stakes of the job — he was a friend of Navy Chief Petty Officer Paul J. Darga, one of the techs who died last year. Andros escorted Darga’s family at last month’s memorial ceremony.
Army Spec. Travis Keenan, 24, previously served in Iraq and first worked with EOD technicians while traveling in a convoy that came across a roadside bomb. The technicians defused the IED. He enrolled in the school.
“I just thought [being a bomb technician] was something more important than what I was doing,” said Keenan, who joked with his fellow students and did push-ups during a break on the practice range.
“You are saving peoples’ lives, making things that kill people safe,” he said.
Ellie