An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

"BOMBS AWAY"

  • Published
  • By Maj. Bill Walsh
  • 315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
CHARLESTON, S.C. --  "Fire in the hole," yelled Tech. Sgt. Levi Kemp as he demonstrated the correct way to alert people that a bomb was about to go off. Seconds later it did, almost knocking everyone standing around off their feet. "That was only 5 pounds of C-4," he said proudly. "Can you imagine what it's like with 10 or 20 pounds?" Not exactly, but that's what these folks do for a living. They not only imagine what these bombs can do, they disarm them to protect our troops overseas.

They are members of the 315th Civil Engineering Flight, Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, or "EOD" who operate around the world with joint forces on six month rotations. "We just sent out three guys," said Maj. Jimmy Wood the unit's commander. "Keep them in your prayers," he said to the others gathered for this training session on a hot, humid August day in South Carolina. It's one of the most dangerous jobs in the Air Force and these men and women do it every day, with a smile on their face and pride in their unit.

Former Army Ranger and now Air Force EOD Reservist Staff Sgt. Dave Barrett has been doing this job for years. "The Afghan's use 'HME's' or homemade explosives," he explained while preparing today's training charge. "Our job is to deny them the ability to use it or get any military grade explosives."

These folks know their stuff and prove it over and over. "Over in Iraq, we had 85 to 110 IED scenarios a day," said Maj. Wood when speaking about his deployment to Baghdad. "Sometimes we had up to eight actual missions a day." That operations tempo has kept his unit busy and deployed. They work wherever they are needed including domestic assignments like working at the White House in Washington where Sergeant Kemp spent 30 days this summer. "That was a great experience, "he said as they made ready another round of explosives to fire off.

EOD members proudly wear their specialty badge which they commonly call "crabs" because of its resemblance to the sea creature. This job, though, is more dangerous than catching real crabs on the Bering Sea and the people who wear the bomb suits earn all the respect they get.


Stay up to date with the 315th Airlift Wing at http://www.315aw.afrc.af.mil/. Follow the 315th on Facebook and Twitter.