SAN ANTONIO – In the realm of army installations, Joint Base San Antonio stands as a vital hub of task, the place numerous group of workers educate, paintings and collaborate.
Amidst the day by day operations, a lesser-known but a very powerful unit performs a pivotal role in making sure the security and safety of the base and its setting — the Emergency Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team.
The EOD team at JBSA-Lackland is composed of extremely educated and professional people who focus on figuring out, comparing and disposing of explosive ordnance, together with unexploded bombs, munitions and dangerous fabrics.
Their paintings is going past the base’s confines, extending to beef up civilian government in emergencies and herbal failures, thereby underscoring the team’s vital role in keeping up regional protection.
“That way, if we get called out and, let’s say somebody’s uncle died and they have a couple of ordnance items in their house. If we have to go in and assist them, they’ll know exactly how we work and we’ll know exactly how they work,” EOD Team Leader JJ Hargrove stated.
Becoming a member of the EOD team is not any simple activity. Prospective team contributors go through in depth coaching that covers a variety of topics, together with explosive physics, electronics, robotics and chemical protection. This complete coaching equips them with the wisdom and talents to care for numerous and probably bad eventualities.
“It’s a lot of physical, but at the same time, it’s a lot of mental too,” Hargrove stated. “If you’re not good at remembering things, or you’re not good at following procedure or like doing things to a T, (then) you’re not going to make it in this career field.”
The EOD team at JBSA-Lackland is armed with state-of-the-art era and kit, together with complicated robotics for far off dealing with and disposal of explosive gadgets.
These equipment now not most effective beef up the protection of the team contributors but additionally permit them to neutralize threats whilst minimizing dangers to the surrounding atmosphere successfully.
“Luckily, we are on the cutting edge of having technology here,” Hargrove stated. “We have two new robot systems that are brand new to the career field, to the actual whole military. We have our medium-sized robot that we’ll get pictures of in a minute that allows us to be completely remote. That way, we don’t have to go down ourselves to a suspicious item or on a suspicious package or an actual IED. Then, we have another larger robot that we have for everyday response that helps us overnight as well.”
Staff Sgt. Bradley Hanks stated the Air Force didn’t have EOD groups till the mid-1940′s.
He stated the British had been the first era of explosive ordnance disposal technicians.
“It was the British that first came up with bomb disposal as kind of a career,” Hanks stated. “Prior to that, explosives have been around since the 10th century, but really up until the Battle of Britain during World War II, when the British were just getting bombed daily by the Germans. They had a lot of unexploded ordnance lying around, and people couldn’t go about their normal jobs. So, they had to come up with somebody that could take care of these bombs that hadn’t exploded yet.” Hanks stated
Technology temporarily advancing and weaponry changing into increasingly more complicated, the American Armed Forces understood the call for for EOD.
“So, they created this profession, bomb disposal technicians, and they basically were the guys charged with going out there and removing these fuses and making these bombs safe to move and eventually dispose of,” Hanks stated.
While the EOD team at JBSA-Lackland would possibly function in the back of the scenes, their contributions to protection, safety and regional steadiness are not anything quick of exceptional.
Their unwavering determination, rigorous coaching and use of complicated era lead them to the unsung heroes who ensure that the protection of the base and its surrounding spaces.
“So, during the global war on terror, the enemy started using improvised explosive devices a lot. And so we became a core component to the mission, because without us, we didn’t have freedom of movement,” Senior Airman David Ethan Lane stated. “We couldn’t do anything about those IED’s blowing up everywhere. So, that’s kind of where EOD came really into the spotlight.”
As we recognize the many transferring portions that make up an army set up like JBSA-Lackland, it’s a very powerful to acknowledge and applaud the vital role performed by means of the EOD team in protecting us all secure.
“We need experts that are able to identify that problem, render it safe and mitigate the hazard,” Lane stated. “Without us, I’m not sure who would do that in the Air Force.”
JBSA-Lackland’s EOD helps the complete South Texas area — together with 57 counties and 14 army installations — coaching a lot of instances all over the 12 months with civilian bomb squads on interoperability.
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