US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team Trains in Iraq

Have you ever wondered how military bomb disposal experts train? The Virginian-Pilot has an excellent description of a rehearsal exercise recently conducted by a US Navy counterexplosives team based in the Iraqi city of Tikrit. Read the entire article here.

"You guys ready to do this?" asks Lt. j.g. Bruce Batteson. He's just come from setting out an inert bomb at their training site up the road.

He explains the scenario: "OK, you just got a call from the Sons of Iraq," he says, referring to local militias that are paid by the Iraqi government to patrol neighborhoods across the country. "They're seeing some wire running across the road near one of their checkpoints. They're pretty sure it's an IED" - an improvised explosive device - "and they're requesting assistance."

Batteson, Byrne and Czaja are one of six teams operating in Iraq that are assigned to the Navy's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 2, headquartered at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach. Typically called EOD technicians, they are trained to dismantle explosives anywhere they endanger U.S. troops, whether on land or under water.

In Iraq, almost all of their calls are for improvised bombs that insurgents have hidden in public places - along roadways, inside parked cars, under piles of trash near busy markets.

As soon as Batteson finishes laying out the situation, the petty officers are up from their desks, grabbing Gatorade, sunglasses and gear.

By: Shelldrake