EOD conducts multi-day exercise

Photo By Pfc. Brendan Roethel | Explosive Ordnance Disposal conducted a multi-day training event designed to teach EOD Marines the skills they need in order to protect Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and its four surrounding counties at the Center of National Response in West Virginia, Sept. 2-6.  

STANDARD, WV, UNITED STATES

09.05.2013

Story by Lance Cpl. Brendan Roethel 

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

STANDARD, W.Va. - A robotic arm drops a charge on an improvised explosive device. Crouching in a safe zone, the robot’s operator wipes sweat from his forehead and focuses back on the controls. Backing the robot away from the IED, a Marine ignites the charge setting off an explosion. The team then utilizes the robot to make sure the scene is clear for further inspection.

The exercise was part of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal training event at the Center of National Response in West Virginia, Sept. 2-6.

The multi-day Explosive Ordnance Disposal field exercise is designed to teach EOD Marines the skills they need in order to protect Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and its four surrounding counties. During the exercise, the Marines practice disarming IEDs in several different scenarios, each created to sharpen a specific skill.

“We trained in a broad range of counter IED techniques,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jason Chrjapin, the EOD staff noncommissioned officer in charge for Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron. “We trained to find the safest route to destroy an IED, different locations where IEDs can be placed and varying scenarios that we could face in the U.S.”

As with wartime operations, an EOD technician has to be prepared for stateside operations as well.

In the U.S., EOD teams act as an emergency response unit to situations like destroying dud grenades on a military range or supporting local law enforcement officials as bomb squad units. Local agencies request assistance from EOD when they are available to respond to explosive ordnance incidents, when military munitions are found, or when the situation is outside of their capabilities.

“In the Air Station and local communities an IED can be placed anywhere from inside a building or vehicle to fields or main roads,” Chrjapin said. “On the Air Station our training is limited because there are no homes we can use to blow up an IED in. We usually have to remove the explosive from the building before blowing it up. At the Center of National Response we can remove the explosive inside or outside of a building or vehicle, allowing us to train in an environment that better relates to what we would see in the U.S.”

The exercise also helped the Marines better define their roles and missions in the event they have to remove an actual explosives threat and come closer as a unit.

• Date Taken: 09.05.2013
• Date Posted: 09.19.2013 14:59
• Story ID: 113924
• Location: STANDARD, WV, US
• Hometown: STANDARD, WV, US