Photo By 1st Sgt. Brent Williams | Soldiers of the 752nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company detonate C4 plastic...... read more read more
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By Staff Sgt. Brent Williams
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq - Soldiers of the 752nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, attached to the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, are on call 24 hours per day to defeat improvised explosive devices and mitigate the threat of the explosively-formed penetrators in southern Baghdad's Rashid District.
"The mission of the 752nd EOD Co. is to help reduce the damage caused by explosive devices in southern Baghdad, to render safe and provide technical expertise to ground force commanders, when it comes to anything related to explosives or improvised explosive devices," said Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Graham, a platoon sergeant from Orange County, Calif. assigned to 752nd EOD Co.
According to a 2006 U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center Report, "Practical Bomb Scene Investigation" by Maj. Gen. James Thurman, the explosively-formed penetrator, first experimented with in World War II, is an explosively formed petard that has a special shape guard designed to generate the Miznay-Schardin Effect, a platter effect explosion capable of penetrating armor, making the EFP the number one threat to coalition forces and Iraqi security forces in Iraq.
Since assuming its mission in late April, the EOD unit stationed at Fort Hood Texas, deployed to Forward Operating Base Falcon in the Rashid District of southern Baghdad, has seen a melting pot of devices, ranging from sophisticated explosively-formed penetrators to rudimentary and simple IEDs and UXO hazards, Graham explained.
Whether confiscating unexploded ordnance or dismantling an IED-making cell, the Soldiers of 752nd EOD Co., run full-spectrum operations in support of asymmetric warfare to assist patrol leaders and commanders on the ground, said Graham.
"Our job is to support the warfighter," he explained. "We are there to clean up their movement. We are there to support and facilitate them in their fight against special groups or any type of IED manufacturer."
Graham said that while the enemies have become more sophisticated in their use of the weapons, and the IEDs have become more sophisticated, complicated and lethal in their design, the Soldiers of the 752nd are ready to respond at any place, any time.
"These guys, they're all about protecting the lives of the Soldiers on the ground and the Iraqi populace," said Graham, a veteran of 14 years and two previous deployments to Iraq. "That's their intent and always will be their intent."
During the past three months, the number of violent attacks in Iraq remain at an all-time low, but the Soldiers of the 752nd remain busy, confiscating weapons caches, defusing roadside bombs and collecting UXO for controlled detonation, planned demolitions, which make for long days and big booms, said Spc. John Jeffcoat, an EOD specialist from Chiloquin, Ore., assigned to 3rd Platoon, 752nd EOD Co.
Jeffcoat admits there are slow day; however, "Some other days, it's so busy, it just drains us. We get 30-hour days where we're on our way back to the FOB, or just get back to the FOB, and have to go right back out again."
An EOD team is responsible for any explosives or ordnance on sight, ranging from a .50-caliber round to nuclear explosives, said Staff Sgt. Stephen Cunningham, a team leader from Los Angeles, assigned to 752nd EOD Co.
Their primary function is to render explosive hazards safe, safe guarding all Soldiers, ISF and Iraqis on site, said Cunningham.
"We have a job that we do," he said. "It is pretty technical, but we are trained well; and we perform to standard."
Cunningham explained that statistics play a big factor in how an EOD technician approaches an IED or EFP.
"What's most likely to happen as opposed to what's least likely to happen; I'm going to take the better road," he said. "Whatever increases my chances of survival."
Working with explosives is a team effort, said Cunningham, who is in charge of a two-man team. Each member of the team provides a different perspective, which contributes to avenues of approach.
"They won't let me do anything that's unsafe, and I try my best to run everything I do by them to give myself a second and third opinion of what I am going to do, which there again increases my chances," he explained.
EOD technicians are trained in electronics and explosives and fuses, said Cunningham, and when they're not disposing of ordnance, their learning about new types of tactics and techniques to prepare them for any threat.
"Hollywood is probably the most inaccurate portrayal for EOD," he laughed. "Cutting wires, if I went off of color-coded wires, especially for something human built, that's just not smart."
Responding to, finding and rendering safe IEDs, EFPs and UXOs is not the only role that the EOD Soldiers play while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said Cunningham.
"Team Leaders are capable of giving an analysis of a post blast site," he explained. "We may also offer IED and ordnance identification training to personnel who request it."
Post blast analysis provides leaders a good ideal of what device was used and which criminal group probably deployed the device, he said.
"People are being arrested and being held accountable for what they're doing because of EOD's ability to determine what to dispose of and what to bring back for forensics," Cunningham said.
The Iraqi army is working to stand up a bomb squad, said Graham, but it takes time to train a bomb technician.
"It's over a year of school just to have a troop out of school with zero experience, just to be proficient, to stay alive, to work around UXO or IEDs," he explained.
Graham said that it is the interest of the 752nd EOD Co., to protect Soldiers and the Iraqi populace, and if there is any doubt on the battlefield, Soldiers should call EOD, whose primary job is safety and protecting the force.
"It may be nothing, or it could be a hazardous piece of ordnance," he said. "That's not wasting our time. That's what we're here for."
| Date Taken: | 08.23.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2008 12:15 |
| Story ID: | 22797 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 372 |
| Downloads: | 218 |
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