EOD protects people from explosive hazards

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Colleen Wronek
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Putting their lives on the line, sweating in heavy bomb suits, lugging cumbersome equipment, working with robots and occasionally blowing things up is all part of the job for Airmen with the explosive ordnance disposal unit here.

“I enjoy my job. I get to blow stuff up,” said Senior Airman Chris Johnson, 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron EOD technician. “I save peoples lives every day. … The danger aspect of my job is exciting.”

The Airmen’s mission here is to protect servicemembers from unexploded munitions found both on and off base.

“We’re here to disarm or dispose of explosives,” Airman Johnson said. “We render safe and destroy unexploded ordnances (and) improvised explosive devices, and we destroy weapons caches.”

If unexploded munitions are found, Airman Johnson said people should identify them as hazards, mark them with something to avoid getting closer to them, clear the area and report them. He also said not to use a hand-held radio within 25 feet or a vehicle radio within 50 feet of the ordinance.

“We took over the Army EOD mission,” said Airman 1st Class Isaiah Schaff, a squadron EOD technician. “We used to have just the airfield, but now we take any call within the area.”

The Airmen get called off base several times a day for suspected improvised explosive devices, weapons caches and random unexploded ordnance.

“After the IED has been disabled or disposed of, we send the components to experts who look for fingerprints and other terrorist cell identifiers to see who’s building them,” Airman Johnson said.

Some of the tools the Airmen use include explosives, bomb suits and robots.

Airman Johnson said the bomb suit is made of Kevlar to withstand a blast and bomb fragments.

“The robot can do a lot of things that would normally put us in mortal danger. It can disassemble IEDs, and because it has a camera attached to it, we can use it for reconnaissance and searching the area,” he said.

Each week, the Airmen conduct controlled detonations.

“A lot of times we’ll find (unexploded ordnance) days after an alarm red, and we’ll also dispose of them,” Airman Johnson said. “One time we were on a demolition operation on our range, and we found an unexploded rocket.”

Although the Airmen put their lives at risk every day, they said their families understand the importance of their job.

“We are protecting our people from explosive hazards,” Airman Schaff said. “If we don’t … people will die.”