EOD team enjoys ‘a booming business’

  • Published
  • By Lanorris Askew
  • Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) --  Most boys dream of growing up to be just like their fathers. They imitate the way they walk, the way they talk and even the way they dress. Tech. Sgt. John Bell went a step further. He imitates the way his father made things explode.

“I guess you can say blowing up things runs in the family,” said Sergeant Bell, an explosive ordnance disposal journeyman. “My dad did it 20 years before I did, and it just sounded like a challenge, something I would really have to work for if I wanted it bad enough.”

An Airman with 116th Air Control Wing’s EOD flight, the sergeant and his co-workers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the Air Force. But it is one they all agree is easy to love.

Staff Sgt. William Campbell, who recently returned from technical school, knew he wanted to join the career field after his last deployment as a Soldier.

“I spent 13 years in the Army, and on my last deployment overseas, I had a chance to work with some Army EOD techs,” he said. “We were in Bosnia-Herzegovina and at the time there were close to 2 million land mines that were just lying out everywhere. The Army techs would go out and clear those land mines and other booby traps that were being laid by the Serbs. I fell in love with the fact that their job is to help people, and you have a definite reward for what you are doing.”

It takes a whole lot more than the love of explosives to be an EOD technician. Training for this highly volatile field involves a score of 61 or better on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, weeks of preliminary courses at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and months of training at EOD School at Eglin AFB, Fla.

“During class you become a family, and that helps to build that family orientation into the career field when you graduate,” Sergeant Campbell said.

While at school, EOD students learn the basics of what makes things explode and then graduate to hands-on training.

“You go from a half-pound block of explosives to a 1,500-pound pile of explosives,” Sergeant Campbell said. It also takes a physically fit person to wear the bomb suit which provides protection against explosives, but weighs about 100 pounds.

After graduation, the real mission begins.

“EOD is one of the most stable jobs in the military because even during peacetime, you’re performing your mission,” Staff Sgt. Adam Fletcher said. “Other units have to wait on a disaster or wartime before they get to perform their mission. In EOD, we perform our mission every day.”

Protecting Air Force people and assets, their job is one that never gets old.

“We do a lot of training in-house,” Sergeant Bell said. “We’re responsible for taking care of any improvised explosive devices. If there was an aircraft problem involving explosives, we would go out and take care of that by rendering the aircraft or area safe.”

Though most EOD team members are flesh and bone, there is one recent addition that takes on a different form -- the Remote Ordinance Neutralization System robot. It weighs more than 500 pounds, is made mostly of aluminum and is equipped with four cameras and two-way microphones.

With an arm, shoulder, elbow and wrist, the robot also has claws that can spin 360 degrees and can lift 20 to 35 pounds fully extended, or up to 50 pounds when half extended. The claws have 50 pounds of gripping pressure, and the robot travels at a top speed of 3 mph.

“The upgraded robot is 3 years old,” he said. “It’s not waterproof, but it’s water resistant up to a certain depth and runs off of wheelchair batteries.”

Whether following in someone else’s footsteps or creating dreams of their own, EOD technicians – with the help of robots -- are helping keep people safe.