Photo By Staff Sgt. Apolonia Gaspar | New York Army National Guard explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians Staff Sgt....... read more read more
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FORT CARSON, Colorado--Two New York Soldiers represented the Army National Guard at the All-Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team of the Year Competition, held April 16-19 at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Sgt 1st Class Robert Contini and Sgt. Michael Wing, members of the 1108th Ordnance Company competed against four Active Army two-man explosive ordnance disposal teams representing Army commands around the world.
There are five explosive ordnance disposal –commonly known as EOD--companies in the Army National Guard. The 1108th Is part of the New York Army National Guard’s 501st Ordnance Battalion (EOD).
The team from the 734th Ordnance Company, based at Fort Bliss, Texas won the competition.
But just getting the chance to compete is “incredibly significant” for Contini and Wing and the 1108th, said 1108th 1st Sgt. Jeremy Blackie.
“The notoriety that they get, just from being at that level is huge,” Blackie said. “The amount of accolades they are getting is intense as well,” he added.
Having Guardsmen compete with Active Army EOD technicians is an advertisement for the Guard, Blackie said.
It takes at least a year, and more often 18 months, for a Soldier to qualify as an EOD technician, he said. Contini and Wing showed the Active Army Soldiers that they could join the Guard and still serve in the EOD field, Blackie said.
Contini and Wing were selected to represent the Army Guard based on an assessment of all Army Guard EOD Soldier assessments, deployments, and recommendations, Blackie explained.
After he joined the New York Army National Guard in 2005, Contini served as a musician, signalman, and an ammunition specialist, before becoming EOD certified in 2017.
It takes at least a year to become an EOD technician, and the washout rate is high, but he wanted to do the job because it is “the most humanitarian of Army jobs out there,” Contini said.
“It doesn’t matter if the if the bomb was left by the enemy or by us, or whether it was left 40, or 50, or 60 or 100 years ago, somebody needs to remove it,” he explained.
Wing, a New York State Trooper who has served in the 1108th since 2016, said he joined the EOD world because of the challenge.
“It is more than logistics and transportation and I didn’t really want to kick down doors and shoot a people. I wanted something a little bit more,” he explained.
Both Wing and Contini deployed with the 1108th to the Kuwait in the 2021. They wound up doing missions there dealing with unexploded ordnance, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
While both Wing and Contini said they were proud to represent the National Guard at the all-Army EOD event, they regretted not having more time to train together.
They both participated in a Department of Homeland Security EOD training event, and found three days before the contest to do some joint training.
But they were up against active-duty EOD technicians who do the mission regularly and “have every single day of the working week to prepare and practice and they have unlimited resources,” Contini said.
Twenty years of battling insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan has made it seem like the sole job for EOD Soldiers is dealing with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, Contini said. But that is only one job among many EOD Soldiers have, he added.
“When you are going to school for 11 months, it is only about a month-and-a-half that is focused on IEDs, he said.
EOD Soldiers must know how to deal with unexploded submunitions left behind by anti-amor artillery shells, minefields, chemical and biological landmines, rounds stuck in artillery tubes, discarded grenades, and ammunition left over from a war 20 or 50 years ago, Wing said.
The competition scenarios reflected the variety of challenges EOD Soldiers face, the two men said.
And after 20 years of low intensity conflict, the scenarios reflected major combat operations which the Army calls LISCO—pronounced “lisco” - -for Large Scale Combat Operations.
In one event, an M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle had been disabled by a minefield. Their job was to clear a path to the Bradley, check the crewmen inside for injuries and treat them, download ammunition from the Bradley, and then recover the vehicle.
The rule of thumb is that where there is one landmine there are usually five more, Contini said, and in this case, there were ten more. They also had to evaluate and treat the casualties and evacuate them.
In another event they faced an evolving scenario in which things kept happening, Contini said.
The situation began when the host nation militia dropped off what they thought might be a bomb in the EOD unit “soak yard”.
A soak yard, Contini explained, is an area near, but not too near the main camp where potential explosives can be watched.
Then there was a helicopter attack with explosions happening on a nearby hillside, with unexploded rounds which had to be dealt with.
Then the U.S. artillery which was returning fire on enemy positions reported a stuck round inside a gun tube, and Wing and Contini had to respond to remove it.
Then it was back to the unexploded rounds from the enemy rocket attack and finally to check out the package left by the local militia. After X-raying it, they determine that it was full magazines for AK-47s inside and old Soviet-era chest ammo carrier.
“It was a very involved and realistic scenario,” Contini said.
While they didn’t win, both Wing and Contini said they were glad to be picked to participate.
They got to participate first rate and well-resourced training events and being evaluated just makes it better, Contini said.
“When there is an evaluation, you are able to see your strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
“This was essentially a free training event with really high-quality training and tools,” he added.
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2023 13:58 |
| Story ID: | 444552 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON , COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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