Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Joe Thompson | Sgt. 1st Class Brian Bradley, 1st Platoon, 752nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company...... read more read more
By Sgt. 1st Class Joe Thompson
41st Fires Brigade
FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq – Weighing over 80 pounds, with hardly any breathing room and designed to protect its wearer from explosions, the explosive ordnance disposal bomb suit is not designed for use as a warm-up suit; let alone for running any type of distance.
Sgt. 1st Class Brian Bradley decided to don the suit and run one mile on a crisp, clear morning, Jan. 14. His goal was to raise awareness of fallen EOD technicians, as well as the EOD Memorial and Scholarship Foundation.
"I just wanted to make a little remembrance for all my brothers and sisters that have fallen out here. A lot of sacrifices have been made, not only just from the EOD guys, but from all the warriors out there," said Bradley, platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon, 752nd EOD Company.
From the back of a pickup truck, Bradley, from Caney, Okla., put on the bottom half of his suit, drank some water and began stretching. After getting warmed-up, one of his Soldiers helped him put on the top half of the 80-pound suit, and fastened on the mask.
"There is a young lieutenant down at Forward Operating Base Echo, he's the commander down there, and he was doing a one-mile run for the EOD memorial, and it kind of inspired me to do the same thing," said Bradley,
Sixteen minutes and 45 seconds later, Bradley crossed the one-mile marker on the road, a little before 9:30 a.m.
"[The fallen] have come here; they didn't ask for much; they did their job; and some of them didn't go home; and I just wanted to bring a little remembrance to them," he said.
The EOD Memorial and Scholarship Foundation is a nonprofit organization that maintains the physical EOD memorial at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and also provides scholarships to active duty and retired EOD technicians and their immediate family.
For more information, on the EOD Memorial and Scholarship fund, visit www.eodmemorial.com.
| Date Taken: | 01.14.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.17.2009 09:18 |
| Story ID: | 28962 |
| Location: | AL KUT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 199 |
| Downloads: | 86 |
This work, Soldier sweats it out for Explosive Ordnance Disposal memorial, by SFC Joe Thompson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
