Community calls upon Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight to defuse explosives

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jaimi L. Upthegrove
  • 482nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. --  They work out of an unassuming, plain cream-colored building.  It looks like every other building on base, save the four, gray garage doors and the large eight-ball sitting in the parking lot.

That building houses the 482nd Civil Engineering Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida. They are a team of highly skilled, well-trained individuals. Their mission is to protect personnel and property from any and all explosive hazards at the risk of their own lives, and they do it at home and overseas.

That eight-ball is not just a cool decoration used by the EOD team - it's a bomb containment vessel used to transport non-fragmenting devices and a critical part of their mission to locate and dispose of ordnance and improvised explosive devices.

"A non-fragmenting device is one that doesn't have added shrapnel," said Tech. Sgt. Aaron Johns, 482nd CES EOD team leader here. "So, for example, we wouldn't put in items like large pipe bombs because that would compromise the integrity of the eight-ball vessel."

The EOD flight is trained to protect the local community, those on base here, the president, visiting foreign heads of state, and those serving overseas.  They provide this service 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

"We deal with anything and everything that is considered ordnance; assisting secret service with sweeps, suspect packages, controlled disposal of unused or partially detonated explosives, and improvised explosive devices overseas," said Tech. Sgt. Steve Kaufman, team leader for the 482nd CES EOD here. "We generally go out in small groups, so being individually well-trained in each mission set is crucial."

Frequently, local authorities call upon the EOD flight to suit-up and assist with handling dangerous explosives.

"In the last 12 months we've taken care of 14 different explosive hazards locally, one on base, the rest within the 9,000 square mile response area we cover from West Palm Beach to Key West, Florida," said Senior Master Sgt. William Williams, 482nd CES EOD program manager. "We encourage local authorities to utilize us since we have an extensive knowledge base on handling the various hazards and the Department of Defense has cradle to grave responsibility for the explosives."

This elite group can also be called on to perform sweeps to keep the president or visiting foreign heads of state safe when travelling. During the sweeps, they check the area for any type of bomb threat.

In addition to handling explosive hazards encountered in the community, they also mitigate live munitions on aircraft.

"When aircraft come in here with munitions in hazardous conditions, we respond and secure the area by removing the explosive threat so everyone else can safely respond," said Johns.

Whether overseas or at home, EOD teams are on call to respond to direct threats in the form of suspect packages that could be bombs.

"Base post offices sometimes get packages that look like they may contain a bomb," said Kaufman. "They secure the area and call us so we can safely remove the suspect package for further investigation and possible disposal depending on the contents."

To say "team" is an understatement - their training is standardized throughout the Armed Forces and internationally with U.S. allies.

"We normally deploy in small teams and in the recent conflicts, rarely work within the traditional Air Force mission set, but all branches attend the same training so the transition is fairly seamless," said Kaufman. "I've even deployed with members from the Polish and British Armies."

While the EOD career field involves a great deal of training to deal with explosives, the appeal of disarming, neutralizing and recovering hazardous materials draws many adventurous Airmen toward the career field.

"I cross-trained into EOD and I feel like I have more impact here because this job means saving lives," said Staff Sgt. Miguel Hill, 482nd CES EOD team member here. "My instructors always said 'a good day is you dying alone' because then you did your job and no one else got hurt, that's why we're here."