Courtesy Photo | Retired Col. Paul R. Plemmons commanded Task Force Troy, the joint, interagency and...... read more read more
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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A retired U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal colonel dedicated his three-decade career to eradicating explosive threats to the American people and the warfighters who defend them.
Retired Col. Paul R. Plemmons commanded Task Force Troy, the joint, interagency and multinational task force that confronted and defeated tens of thousands of Improvised Explosive Devices during the Iraq War.
In 2006, Plemmons established and led the task force that brought together more than 1,400 U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force EOD technicians who responded to IED calls across Iraq. He also previously helped to rid Iraq of ammunition and munition stockpiles from the Saddam Hussein era during his first deployment to Iraq.
Plemmons upheld a family tradition of service during his more than 32 years in the Army.
“My father was a World War II Pacific Marine, and his father was a 2nd Infantry Division Soldier who served in France in World War I during a mustard gas attack. My grandfather on my mother’s side was a Navy commando in the Pacific in World War II,” he said. “That exposure alone made me want to serve, but I really was not sure what I wanted to do out of high school.”
Plemmons enlisted in the Army as an Infantryman in 1972 at the tail end of the Vietnam War.
He served at Camp Hovey, South Korea, in the 2nd Infantry Division, and later at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (Fort Lewis), Washington, in the 9th Infantry Division, in 1975.
He got out of the U.S. Army after his enlistment, returned home to Riverside, California, and married his high school sweetheart, Nancy. The couple will celebrate their 50th anniversary in February.
Plemmons earned his bachelor’s degree in business management from Cal Poly Pomona and commissioned as an ordnance officer in the Army in 1978. He was particularly drawn to the EOD field.
“My exposure to EOD was a bit different I imagine than many of my counterparts. One of my Army recruiters was an EOD sergeant 1st class, and I was impressed and had a tremendous amount of respect for him,” said Plemmons. “While I served in Korea I was often exposed to the EOD teams that supported our live fire exercises.”
A high school tragedy gave Plemmons extra motivation to become a part of the lifesaving Explosive Ordnance Disposal profession.
It happened on a fall day in 1969. Plemmons said that several of the younger children in his neighborhood were out playing football in a backyard when the ball bounced into a bush in a neighbor’s yard and one of the children went to recover it.
He not only brought back the ball, but also an M67 hand grenade that was in a box in the bush. The neighbor, a Vietnam Veteran, had brought the ordnance home.
“As the children were looking at the ordnance, one of them pulled the pin. I can still hear the muffled explosion when I think of the incident. The explosion killed all six children,” he said. “My younger brother was supposed to be with them, but for some reason was elsewhere.”
That traumatic experience led Plemmons to learn as much about explosives and how to defeat them as possible.
“I did not know it until I pinned on my EOD badge, but I had been given the knowledge and power to prevent such a tragedy,” said Plemmons. “This was a theme throughout my EOD career as I believed it is EOD’s duty to keep people out of harm’s way when it comes to ordnance and explosives.”
Plemmons was serving as the deputy commanding officer for the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (CBRNE) Command when the need for the combined EOD task force was identified by EOD leaders on the ground in Iraq. At the time, the command was called the 20th Support Command (CBRNE).
"The task force was the brainchild of Colonel Kevin Lutz, who went on to command the 52nd EOD Group," said Plemmons. "He convinced the Corps staff in Iraq that the task force was necessary and began to architect it. Colonel Lutz was on the staff and preparing to rotate so getting the task force going would be difficult."
Plemmons was selected to command Task Force Troy and had the challenge of bringing the different joint EOD forces under a task force command to create unity of action against the weapons system that was the cause of 75 percent of casualties. Plemmons said the task force was also issued new lifesaving technology and equipment like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, talon robots, new bomb suits and CREW systems.
“This equipment had to be issued, trained on, and employed, again while in an intense fight. This also required a lot of battlefield circulation on my part by ground and air,” he said.
“I had to educate division and brigade commanders, and see what my Soldiers, Sailors, and Airman were experiencing on the ground,” said Plemmons. “This included accompanying teams on several Route Clearance Missions throughout the area. This was a large part of building a cohesive team.”
In just three short months, Combined Joint Task Force Troy went from Initial Operating Capability to Full Operating Capability.
“This was crazy hard because of service politics and protocols,” said Plemmons. “I had to press to get theater leadership from the four-star commanding general down to brigade and battalion level commanders to agree that the task force was extremely important to cutting casualties because of our render safe and intelligence capabilities.”
Formed around a nucleus of Army EOD and Chemical Corps personnel from the 20th CBRNE Command, Task Force Troy had British, Australian and Moldovan officers serving on the staff, along with members of every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.
The U.S. Navy provided 300 Electronic Warfare officers under the unit Joint CREW Composite Squadron One and the U.S. Air Force provided 75 intelligence analysts to support the Task Force Troy staff and man the Weapons Technical Intelligence Teams. The 20th CBRNE Command provided EOD subject matter experts and staff specialists, in addition to a CBRNE Response Team.
Plemmons said the task force defeated thousands of IEDs and collected forensic evidence during his time in command.
“In July of 2006 alone, Task Force elements responded to 3,000 devices either pre-blast or post-blast,” said Plemmons. “The basis for our response was not just to save lives of service members and the local population, but also to investigate left behind forensic evidence and develop target packets to remove bomb makers off the streets. During my tenure, we developed over 125 packets for maneuver and Special Operations Forces action.”
“This led to better technical command and control of our deployed EOD forces, which reduced the chances of casualty incidents and increased mission success,” said Plemmons.
While Task Force Troy defeated thousands of IEDs and helped to safeguard friendly forces on the battlefield, its success came at a great cost.
“Under my command, the task force had eight service members killed in action,” said Plemmons. “Three Army Soldiers, including one Infantry Soldier from 25th Infantry Division who provided Weapons Intelligence Team security, three Navy and two Air Force EOD technicians. There were also numerous technicians wounded in action and 2006 and 2007 proved to be years of heavy combat and losses across the theater.”
In December 2006, Plemmons turned command of the task force over to the 71st EOD Group.
“I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the people of the 20th CBRNE Command, especially those military members who deployed with me from the headquarters, and especially Sgt. Maj. Ron Green,” said Plemmons. “He was on just about every ground convoy and did a tremendous job running the noncommissioned officer side of the Task Force.”
A similar EOD task force in Afghanistan called Combined Joint Task Force Paladin was later modeled from Task Force Troy.
This Iraq deployment was not the first time Plemmons had dealt with large amounts of explosives. During a deployment to Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, Plemmons supported the XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division.
“I deployed as an operations officer but was pressed into service as an EOD team leader. The EOD personnel handled hundreds of tons of hazardous and unexploded ordnance as well as booby traps without one injury in the three-month mission,” said Plemmons. “I learned so much, not only about technical EOD operations, but how to deal with supported units. This served me well throughout my career and future deployments.”
During his first tour to Iraq in 2003, Plemmons set up a theater maintenance point to repair tanks for the 4th Infantry Division in Balad, Iraq.
Plemmons was serving as the commander of the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, California, when he was called for a 90-day rotation in Iraq.
“As my tour was ending, I was summoned by the Coalition Forces Land Component Command CJ-4 because of my background in EOD and ammunition. I was told there was a large problem putting our troops in harm’s way and I needed to get to the CJTF-7 headquarters in Baghdad and conduct an assessment,” he said.
The 5th Corps commanding general assigned Plemmons as the initial officer-in-charge of the captured enemy ammunition mission. Plemmons was responsible for securing approximately 700,000 tons of Iraqi ammunition in more than 8,300 locations.
This was the largest mission of its kind since World War II to keep explosives from harming service members, local nationals, and more importantly, to keep the ammunition out of insurgent hands.
“In the next seven months, we were able to build a larger team, hire 1,000 unexploded ordnance (UXO) contractors and 2,000 Iraqi nationals to collect, secure and destroy over 400,000 tons of the total,” said Plemmons. “This was probably the most difficult mission of my career. It required hundreds of ground convoy and air transport miles with minimal security through a growing insurgent threat and IED ladened territory.”
During this mission, Plemmons said two of his civilian ordnance contractors were killed in an IED ambush in Fallujah. Roy Buckmaster and David Dyess were two retired Air Force EOD operators. They were transiting from the depot in Taji to standup a new depot in Fallujah.
From July 2005 to June 2007, Plemmons served as the deputy commanding officer of the 20th Support Command (CBRNE), which was renamed the 20th CBRNE Command in 2013 to more accurately reflect its multifunctional and deployable mission. He served as the acting commander from July 2005 to September 2005.
“As the deputy commanding officer, I saw my job as enhancing Army EOD formations and cutting the chaos for our troops,” said Plemmons, who also earned a master’s degree in administration from Central Michigan University and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.
“I enlisted the help of our U.S. Army Forces Command liaison team to begin looking at moving our EOD formations to large posts where our commanders could now train, mentor and deploy most of their units from one place,” said Plemmons.
“The Groups and Battalions could begin to build habitual relationships with Corps and Division leadership and staff,” said Plemmons. “The approval from FORSCOM was quick and we began moving units.”
Plemmons worked together with Brig. Gen. Kevin Wendel, the 2nd commanding general of the then 20th Support Command (CBRNE), and Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Womack, the senior enlisted leader, to improve dwell time and provide EOD team leader incentive pay.
Plemmons said these moves helped to keep more EOD techs in the IED fight.
“This stemmed the large flow of people leaving. All in all, the work done in a six-month timeframe allowed our warfighting formations to get properly replaced, rested and retrained,” said Plemmons. “The entire 20th can be proud of these efforts as it saved lives down range and preserved our home station forces.”
Plemmons said he was most proud of being able to eradicate the explosive threats that caused more than 75 percent of the casualties during his two deployments to Iraq.
“Between the Captured Enemy Ammunition mission and Task Force Troy, hundreds, if not thousands of coalition military personnel and local national lives were saved,” he said
Plemmons added that the 20th CBRNE Command gave the Army and U.S. military the ability to conduct critical missions that it previously lacked before the command was established on October 16, 2004. The command celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.
“I believe this was a brilliant idea by the Army to set up this command. We are talking about specialized technical jobs that require engagement from leadership which includes proper equipping, training, and employment,” he said. “If the 20th had been an active organization in 2003, the Pentagon would have tasked them to find the Iraqi WMD and work the enemy conventional ammunition problem at the same time instead of standing up ad hoc task forces.”
Plemmons said he was grateful for the Soldiers and Army civilians at the 20th CBRNE Command and for their lifesaving and mission-enabling service to the nation.
“If I get a cut, I bleed CBRNE green,” said Plemmons.
After Plemmons hung up his uniform and retired from the U.S. Army, he went to work in the private sector.
“I began my civilian private sector career as a director and within six months was made a senior vice president running a business area,” he said. “I brought people and leadership skills and the ability and desire to learn. I stayed in the company 10 years. Of note, the business area I led designed, built, and delivered man portable jammers which my son and his troops used to defeat radio-controlled devices on his second combat tour.”
Today, Plemmons is retired and living in St. Augustine, Florida, and his sons have continued his family’s legacy of service.
His oldest son Paul served for eight years in the Army as an infantryman in the 2nd Infantry Division and as an instructor in the mountain phase of the Army Ranger School.
His youngest son, Lt. Col. Ryan Plemmons, is also an Army EOD officer and serves as an EOD Capability Developer for Army Futures Command.
“We are an Army family, but I never outwardly influenced either of my son’s paths,” said Plemmons. “I am extremely proud of them both for serving and giving back to this nation, though I never expected them to follow my path.”
“During Ryan’s deployments, I knew exactly what he was doing and for the first time in my life I felt the emotions my wife had throughout my career. There was not a minute that went by that I was not worried while he was deployed,” he said. “There were periods when we would not hear from him for days and that added to the stress of not only having a loved one deployed but being an EOD operator in an IED fight.”
Plemmons said his only EOD guidance to his son Ryan was “no Hurt Locker” stuff.
“Get your troops and yourself home safe,” said Plemmons. “He and his troops did that in his two tours to Afghanistan, one as a platoon leader and one as a company commander. In his first tour as a platoon leader, he led three teams. He and his one team he operated the most with rendered safe over 300 devices.”
“The one thing I imparted to both of my sons was to lead from the front and Ryan did just that,” said Plemmons. “I can say I live vicariously through him now and keep up on the changes good and bad. At the end of the day, it is pretty cool having my son doing the same incredibly special duty and I am a proud father. He is way more talented than me, and I believe he is a great Soldier and leader.”
In his role as an EOD Capability Developer, Lt. Col. Ryan Plemmons supports efforts to develop and field new technology to the EOD community to increase Soldier safety and efficiency.
A graduate of the University of Tampa with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology who has served in the Army for 18 years, Ryan Plemmons said he was inspired to serve in the Army and EOD community by his father.
“Seeing my father carry out meaningful missions around the world and witnessing the lifelong bond he shares with the EOD technicians he served with really motivated me to volunteer to become an EOD officer,” said Ryan Plemmons, who calls Reno, Nevada, home.
"My motivation for passing EOD School was the thought of how special it would be to have my dad pin my EOD Badge on graduation day,” said Ryan Plemmons. “My dad being there to pin my Basic, Senior and Master EOD Badges have been the most meaningful milestones of my career.”
Ryan Plemmons added that his father always led by example and trusted his EOD technicians to safely accomplish their jobs.
“My father has always been my biggest inspiration and all I strive to do is provide my daughter with the same love, support and guidance that my brother and I have received our whole lives from our dad,” said Ryan Plemmons. “Part of what makes him such an amazing father and role model is his extraordinary military career. I have always been so proud of him. When it came time for me to choose a profession, I honestly couldn’t think of a more meaningful or admirable option than to follow in his footsteps.”
| Date Taken: | 02.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.20.2025 11:03 |
| Story ID: | 491123 |
| Location: | ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, US |
| Hometown: | RENO, NEVADA, US |
| Hometown: | RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 271 |
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