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Posted on 10/25/2003 8:54:05 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
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Tallil is in a class by itself.
“As EOD technicians, we could have not chosen a better place to go to practice our trade,” Ehmke said. “We have a team of true professionals (who) have risked their lives and will continue to risk their lives while assigned here.”
~~~
Another day at the office for our awesome EOD technicians - saving lives daily in Iraq.
~~~
If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).
You might be interested in this more detailed account of the EOD teams working around Baghdad. The press of course reports the few lucky bad guy hits each week. The Baghdad EOD guys responded to 4500 calls in the past 3 months - many called in by supportive Iraqis ratting out their rat neighbors.
The lives our troops are saving daily = a miracle, imho.
8Navy EOD Joins Forces with Army, Helps Clear Ordnance Out of Baghdad
Pinging you to #11.
Enlisting at that point had to have been a difficult decision, you have my highest respect.
Jim
Basically anytime someone puts a shovel
in the ground, we have to clear the area.
The lives our troops are saving daily = a miracle, imho.
EOD at “Ammo Alley”
By Cpl. Keith A. Kluwe
A mission started a year ago was brought to conclusion Tuesday when Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians destroyed two caches of ordnance in what has come to be called “Ammo Alley.”
Completing the mission was delayed more than a year after three EOD technicians and one U.S. Special Forces soldier were killed in an explosion last April 15, 2002 at the same site, 35 kilometers northwest of Kandahar Air Field.
“One of my good friends was killed there last year, Sgt Jamie Mulligans. We went through both phases of EOD school together, and then we were stationed together for a year in Korea. He was a real good friend of mine and this mission brought closure being able to go out to where he was killed and destroy that cache,” said army Staff Sgt. Baylin Oswalt, an EOD team leader with the 731st Ordnance Company (EOD) from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
“Everyone felt their loss. We’re a very tight-knit community so when some one dies in the line of duty, there name doesn’t just go on the memorial. We all remember them, whether we knew them from school or through friends.” Staff Sgt Jeffrey Mclean, an EOD team leader with the 754th Ordnance Company (EOD) from Ft. Monmouth, N.J.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams from the 731st, 754th and 705th Ordnance Companies (EOD) rigged the two piles of ordnance with C-4 explosives, destroyed two large caches of Chinese made Type 63, 107 mm fin-stabilized rockets, like the ones that are used in attacks against all the fire bases around here, said Oswalt.
The EOD teams were supported by heavy equipment engineers that plowed a new road to the cache sites, and a safety around the sites. The roads gave a safe area from the EOD teams to rest and a safe route from the main road in the valley out to the sites.
“With caches in this country you have to watch out for booby-traps,” Mclean said. “We knew this site had been previously booby-trapped…. We used the bulldozer to sever any hard wired remote-controlled devices that might have been at the objective we were dealing with.”
In the long run, this mission into “Ammo Alley” also keeps weapons and ordnance out of the hand of people wishing to destabilize the national and provincial governments, or cause harm to U.S. forces.
“We are denying the enemy use of the 107 mm rockets because it seems like they are weapon of choice for the most part,” said Lt. Col. Keith Angles, the battalion commander of the 184th Ordnance Battalion (EOD) from Ft. Gillam, Ga.. “It’s almost everyday we hear about one of our compounds getting a 107 mm rockets at it, so the more of those we dispose of, the less they are going to have to shoot at us.”
“Ammo Alley is still a big concern. There is still a lot of ammunition and ordnance out there that can be used by hostile Taliban or Al Qaeda, or anyone else that wants to do harm to coalition forces, Mclean said.
There are still more than 20 known munitions cache sites in the valley.
Army Times
April 29, 2002
Pg. 16
Booby-Trap Might Have Killed EOD Soldiers By Matthew Cox, Times staff writer
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - A booby trap may have caused an explosion that killed four soldiers near Kandahar before they could detonate a pile of abandoned 107 mm rockets.
The April 15 accident occurred when soldiers of the 710th Explosive Ordnance Detachment from San Diego prepared to dispose of about 250 Soviet-made rockets. The rockets were confiscated from Taliban ammunition dumps in an area north of Kandahar known as "ammunition alley," said Maj. Bryan Hilferty, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
They were working near the former residence of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
The soldiers were stacking the rockets, by hand, in a pit along with C-4 explosive when the explosives went off. The blast killed Staff Sgt. Justin J. Galewski, 28, Staff Sgt. Brian T. Craig, 27, and Sgt. Jamie O. Maugans, 27, all from the 710th, and Sgt. 1st Class Daniel A. Romero, 30, of the 19th Special Forces Group out of Pueblo, Col.
A fifth soldier, whose name has not been released, was injured in the explosion and is listed in stable condition, Hilferty said.
They are the first EOD soldiers killed in Afghanistan while clearing the countless caches of unexploded munitions that have littered the ground from 20 years of war. Staff Sgt. Matthew Hess of the 744th Explosive Ordnance Detachment died Dec. 18 after he stepped on a land mine at Bagram Air Base.
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the most recent explosion. While few details are known, a possible cause may be that the rockets were booby-trapped before being abandoned, said Maj. Erik Stor, the senior U.S. combat engineer in Afghanistan.
"There is a technique in this country of booby-trapping munitions," Stor said. "That possibility exists only because that has been a precedent that has been set in the past."
American EOD troops have run into booby-trapped munition caches before, but have always detected signs of tampering before accidents like this could occur, Stor said. Some of the more common signs include exposed wiring or an appearance that the artillery shell or rocket has been dismantled and improperly re-assembled, he said.
"These guys are trained to look for things like this," Stor said. "Even if it looks suspicious, even remotely suspicious, EOD is trained to back off.
"It was a very solemn day around here. We all felt the pain. Terrible. It was a terrible loss of life."
Disposing of explosives has always been a high-risk job, but the recent deaths of these four soldiers shocked the EOD community here and sent a sobering message that their job is far from over.
"We are all quite shaken," said Capt. Rob Mitchell, commander of the 744th EOD, which operates in Bagram. "We would like to know the roots of the cause, since we deal with this on a frequent basis."
The 710th has been in Afghanistan since October, charged with clearing explosives from what the United Nations has described as one of the world's most heavily mined countries.
The unit arrived Jan. 23 at the Kandahar Airfield after operations in the north and searching caves in the Tora Bora region. Over the next few months, the unit's soldiers destroyed ordnance ranging from old Soviet fuel-air bombs to unexploded bombs dropped by U.S. pilots.
"We've done detonations almost every day we've been here," 1st Lt. Kevin Wynes told an Army journalist last month. "We can't get rid of all the stuff that's out here."
Wynes stepped in as interim commander when Capt. Keith Nelson stepped on a bomb fuse in February and injured his foot. Nelson has since returned to command, said Lt. Col. Howard Rudat, deputy commander of the Army's main ordnance group in Georgia.
Back at home, the unit's primary duty is to help Southern California law enforcement authorities defuse military explosives.
I guess that the "EOD guys" of the world are BIG news. They are finally getting the recognition that they so rightly deserve.
And another:
It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence has to confirm the death of Staff Sergeant Chris Muir from the Army School of Ammunition, Royal Logistic Corps, based at Kineton. Aged 32, Staff Sergeant Muir was killed during an explosive ordnance disposal operation in southern Iraq on 31 March. He came from Romsey in Hampshire, and was married with a son.
His wife Gillian, has released the following statement:
"Chris was the sort of person that could light up a room just by being in it. He had a fantastic sense of humour and always tried to see the funny side, no matter what the situation. Judging by the amount of phone calls, cards and visits I have had, he will be missed by his colleagues, all of whom I know he regarded as great friends.
"I know that Chris was very proud to wear the badge of an Ammunition Technician, and I take small comfort from the knowledge that he died doing the job that he loved.
"He has left me and our families with the most fantastic of memories, the greatest one being our son, Ben, who can grow up knowing that his father was a good, honest, hardworking soldier, who died trying to do the right thing.
"Chris will be greatly missed by all who had the honour to have met him."
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Dolamore MBE, his Commanding Officer said:
"Staff Sergeant Muir joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps at Deepcut in 1988. He carried out his trade training at the Army School of Ammunition, and qualified as an Ammunition Technician in 1989. On amalgamation in 1993, Chris became a member of the Royal Logistic Corps.
"During his service in the Royal Logistic Corps, Chris travelled extensively, often in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal area, where he had trained and qualified at the highest level. In view of his expertise, he had most recently been employed as an Instructor back at the Army School of Ammunition at Kineton, Warwickshire. His skills, drive and determination as an individual and a soldier ensured his quick promotion to Staff Sergeant and recent selection for promotion to Warrant Officer. It is a particularly sad fact that we will not see him wearing the new rank he so richly deserved.
"Chris was an enthusiastic sportsman, who enjoyed a wide range of team sports. He was a particularly keen motorcyclist always willing to introduce sport riding to others, imparting his own specialist knee-down skills to any new rider.
"He will be remembered for his rich sense of humour and his sharp and clever wit. He was a very strong character, an outstanding technician, and a highly effective leader. Most of all, however, Chris was a gentleman through and through. This thoroughly professional soldier will be sorely missed by all in his Corps, and especially by all past and present members of this unit.
"All of us at the Army School of Ammunition send out deepest sympathies to his wife Gill, son Ben, and all his family."
The media are asked to respect the family's privacy.
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