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VOLK FIELD COMBAT READINESS TRAINING CENTER, Wis. - Participating in PATRIOT 2014, a National Guard training exercise at Volk Field, is the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Flight from the 115th Fighter Wing, Madison, Wisconsin. PATRIOT 2014 has opened many training opportunities that wouldn’t be possible with the limited time available for training at their home units. This allows them to engage in dozens of exercises to hone their valuable skill set.
PATRIOT 2014 is a joint domestic operation which helps direct EOD to train and focus on civil authorities like FEMA, local first responders and other contingency response agencies.
“We will be simulating and training based on specific domestic threats,” said 115th EOD Unit Training and Operations specialist, Tech. Sgt. Reich Joseph Sanford. “Some of our examples include, say, a law enforcement agent finds ordnance in a local home, an improvised explosive device on or off base or some homemade explosives (HME). Then this training will be invaluable for those situations.”
With the time and focused training that PATRIOT 2014 allows, the EOD unit has set up exercises with an increased level of difficulty and variation. Some examples include an HME lab with a number of booby-traps, car bombs, vehicle training, rappelling and several others, Sanford said.
Because of the variation in each exercise, EOD will nominate different team leaders based on their individual skill set. According to Master Sgt. Gilbert Holcomb, 115th EOD technician, they will shift many roles to accommodate new experiences for the members.
“In some cases, the team leader in charge will be the lowest ranking member or lowest EOD technician, because the exercise may be designed more for his or her skill level,” he said. “This allows us to build these guys up to become great team leaders instead of them simply meeting the qualifications and being dropped into the position.”
Not only is each member encouraged to receive EOD training, but leadership training as well. There is no guarantee units will deploy together, this type of training allows these guys to not only see how their supervisor runs an operation, but how each individual team leader runs it, Holcomb said.
With these training techniques in place, it prevents the repetitiveness of only a few people teaching all the classes, and it allows others, based on the scenario, to expand on their expertise.
PATRIOT 2014 has already proven to be an invaluable training experience for the EOD flight, along with the more anticipated exercises to finish out the week.
“At the end of the day … if it doesn't blow up, we win,” said Sanford.
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.23.2014 19:38 |
| Story ID: | 137062 |
| Location: | VOLK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 206 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Explosive ordnance disposal training during PATRIOT 2014, by A1C Cody Witsaman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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