Photo By Senior Airman Landon Gunsauls | Airman 1st Class Nathan Condado, 90th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance...... read more read more
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. -- Before the sun crests the hill and the billowing of wind begins in earnest, members of the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Demolition team begin to stir and ready themselves for the drive to Camp Guernsey, Wyoming, for a week long exercise called Operation Wyoming Bullworm (OWB) 2025.
Running from Feb. 24 to 28, the exercise has been designed as a way to test the EOD team’s cold weather survival and operational capabilities. While the weather wasn’t exactly what the team was hoping for, the constant howl of wind and the night’s freezing temperatures have more than made up for the lack of snow.
“The challenges that Guernsey has presented is that the weather is very hard to predict and very uncooperative,” said Staff Sgt. Henry Dodd, 90 CES EOD technician. “We were told that there could be anywhere between two feet of snow and no snow, now we're dealing with gusts at 40 to 50 miles an hour that are blowing our tents over.”
Events like OWB are an opportunity for EOD team members to gain experience with operations, equipment, and environments stateside that they normally don’t have the chance to until they’re on a deployment, all while sharpening their skills and learning what gear they need to accomplish a mission in a foreign environment.
“It’s about getting the guys out from the office, and devoting a week's worth of being out in the field and having training devoted to EOD,” said Capt. Jesse Arrington, 90 CES EOD flight commander. “What we're hoping to get out of this is EOD specific training in a cold environment, meaning unexploded ordnance, improvised explosive devices, weapons familiarization, advanced shooting, that kind of thing.”
During OWB, EOD Airmen are presented with several different mission sets with the goal of identifying, disarming, and disposing of mock munitions all while fighting the bitter cold and 40 mile per hour sustained winds. For the Airmen, these daily training scenarios are a chance to see what the differences between stateside and deployed mission sets look like.
Many of the scenarios are what EOD calls 117 problems, more commonly known as first found problems. Working on identifying ordinance or components they’ve never encountered before and collecting as much information on them as possible doesn’t tend to happen stateside for EOD. From measurements to counting the number of fins, they thoroughly document each object so that if others encounter it in the future they're able to reference back to their findings.
The opportunity to work through unique scenarios over the week-long period allows senior EOD technicians the chance to teach best practices to newer EOD members who are excited to learn and sharpen their less often used technical skills while supporting a rare mission set like the 90th Missile Wing.
“My favorite part has been getting out of the wind,” joked Senior Airman Daniel Tenhulzen, 90 CES EOD technician, “In all seriousness though, the scenarios keep us away from base camp and just sitting around and being bored. We actually get to get out, practice our skills and become more proficient in them.”
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2025 13:17 |
| Story ID: | 491766 |
| Location: | GUERNSEY, WYOMING, US |
| Web Views: | 73 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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