Photo By Guy Volb | Staff Sgt. Stephen Shubert, EOD team leader, and Royal Bahamas Defense Force Leading...... read more read more
FORT IRWIN, Calif. - In the first of its kind, the National Training Center welcomed members of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force Sept. 9-11 as part of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Subject Matter Expert Exchange Program.
In the past, U.S. Army EOD Soldiers have traveled to the Bahamas to conduct training and to assist in their program development -- that of countering improvised explosive devices and combating weapons of mass destruction.
However, this time the RBDF made the trip to Fort Irwin.
“I’d like the Bahamas delegation to take back a basic understanding of the effects of various explosive hazards, the necessary protocols and procedures to deal with those hazards” said Maj. Nathaniel Garza, U.S. Army North action officer and escort for the training visit. “I’d also like them to have a basic understanding of our EOD team leader certification in order to facilitate their own institutional development of a CIED capacity to respond safely to explosive devices.”
Garza said it was a group effort to make the visit a success, with the entire Fort Irwin community, National Training Center, 759th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, and the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization and their Center of Excellence supporting the visit.
“All of these organizations are extremely busy training our Soldiers in preparation for real-world missions and they took time out of their schedules to engage with our partner nation to develop their capacity,” he said.
RBDF Lt. Andrew Bowe, executive officer for their military police department, said, “It is amazing how something as simple as water could be used to disrupt components within a weapon of mass destruction without totally destroying it, so that the possible weapon could be investigated.”
Bowe singled out one of the field training examples provided in which a “brief case bomb” was engaged in such a way that the components inside were destroyed by the case, itself, remained largely intact and could be thoroughly investigated.
Bowe said he will be taking back to his unit insight gained regarding radiation and chemical detection, EOD tools and capabilities, and much more regarding the handling of possible WMD.
“The EOD team at Fort Irwin provided us with a lot of important and useful information,” the lieutenant stressed. “Most of it will be used in establishing and adding to my unit’s standard operating procedures.”
Locally, “the 759th EOD company mission includes identifying, rendering safe and disposing of unexploded ordnance, improvised explosive devices, chemical, biological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive devices – both foreign and domestic,” said 1st Lt. Joshua Bowers, operations officer for the 759th EOD. “We also provide direct support to the National Training Center, and emergency EOD support to civil law enforcement agencies for 89 countries in California, Arizona and Nevada. We also support the U.S. Secret Service and Department of State.”
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.15.2014 16:27 |
| Story ID: | 142199 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 402 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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