EOD technicians gather to remember their fallen

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Roger Dey | An etched-glass memorial plaque presented to Rear Adm. Frank Morneau at the EOD memorial ceremony May 1, is examined while being auctioned off to benefit the EOD Memorial Scholarship fund. The Plaque brought in a winning bid of $800. The memorial at Al Faw Palace was timed so that the placement of the dog tags of deceased technicians on the combat memorial coincided with the placement of those same individual's names on the EOD Memorial at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.  

CAMP VICTORY, IRAQ

05.01.2010

Courtesy Story

103rd Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP VICTORY, BAGHDAD -- Sixteen sets of dog tags were hanging from a small wooden cross near the center of the Al Faw Palace conference room, May 1. As the names on each set were read, the tags were taken off the cross and added to more than 200 sets already hanging from the M16 in a combat memorial set up a few paces away. As the dog tags were draped on the rifle, the explosives ordnance disposal technicians, who had gathered from throughout Iraq, made a simple promise that echoed off the marble covered walls of the room.

"We remember!"

The event was timed to coincide with the annual ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, during which the names of the EOD technicians who have died in the line of duty around the world in the last year are added to the wall of the national EOD Memorial.

Rear Admiral Frank A. Morneau, deputy director for operations, DJ-3 United States Forces-Iraq, drove home the significance of the event to the young technicians who were attending the event for the first time.

"Your life as an EOD technician will change tonight," said Morneau, who has been an explosives ordnance disposal expert since 1987.

"These people died too young. They should have been my age. They sacrificed way too young," Morneau said. "Our job is to keep their spirit alive. Our job is to make sure we do remember, every day, in our own way."

The message was not lost on Army 1st Lt. Jarod Pugh from Montgomery Ala., the newest member of the EOD community in Iraq.

"It makes it real," said Pugh, who graduated from EOD technician school in December. "It lets you know what can happen out there, what really can happen. It's proof of the dangers and the hazards that EOD techs face day after day over here."

Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Joseph W. May, from Gibbstoiwn N.J., with Task Force Troy has been in EOD for 20 years. He's no stranger to memorial ceremonies like this, nor is he a stranger to seeing the names of people he knew added to the memorial.

"In my EOD class we had about 20 guys graduate. We lost two of those guys over the years, one in the first Gulf War, one out on a range clearance on Twenty-Nine Palms."
This year May's involvement in the ceremony was both symbolic and personal.

"Adam Ginnet was probably one of my better friends," May said, referring to Tech. Sgt. Adam Ginnet, of Knightdale, N.C., who lost his life in an IED explosion in Afghanistan in January. "I've tried to steer Adam the right way on some things in his life and even tried to steer him in his career. When his career and life was cut short it was devastating."

As the senior Air Force non-commissioned officer with Task Force Troy, it fell to May to add the four sets of Air Force dog tags to the combat memorial, placing them on the weapon at the same time the names were added to the wall of the EOD memorial in Florida.

"The exact time that they were putting the names on the wall down in Florida, was the same time we were putting the tags on the weapon," May said. "It allowed us to be there even though we weren't."

"I was placing the Air Force ones on there and I knew three of those (Airmen) well," he said. "I could see my hand just shaking. I was upset. But it felt good that I was honoring them."

"That's the point of the whole ceremony, to show that we will remember these warriors … to let everybody know that we'll remember them and remember their families."

The EOD memorial at Eglin Air Force base bears the names of all the EOD school graduates, in all four branches of the military, who lost their lives on active duty since the declaration of World War II. As of May 1, that number now stands at 254.

• Date Taken: 05.01.2010
• Date Posted: 05.10.2010 08:09
• Story ID: 49393
• Location: CAMP VICTORY, IQ