FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta may have recently issued a directive lifting the ban on women serving in combat ground roles, but women have been performing other life-threatening, mission-essential jobs, just as their male counterparts, for years.
Spc. Jamie McCrary, 24, is one of those women. Serving as one of the Army’s few female explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians, McCrary believes she’s tackled one of the most critical obstacles she’ll face in her military career, the battle of the sexes.
In her three years as an EOD technician and during her 30-week stint at EOD school at Eglin Air Force Base, McCrary cannot recall one incident where was given any special treatment for being a girl and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I definitely feel that additional pressure to be as good, if not better, than my male teammates and that’s a driving force I welcome every day. I am naturally competitive and I want to do my part to not only set a good example for current and future female EOD technicians, but for women in all military branches that we don’t need to fall into any stereotypes or generalizations about our capabilities or our personalities.”
Assigned to 717th EOD out of Fort Campbell, Ky., McCrary is currently deployed with her team to Afghanistan as part of Combined Joint Task Force Paladin, which is responsible for all coalition counter-IED operations and training in Afghanistan. As an EOD technician, McCrary serves as a member of a three-person EOD team. Her responsibilities range from preparing the truck for missions, ensuring each piece of equipment is operational, driving the bomb disposal robot, keeping her team lead level-headed, and making his life in the bomb suit as comfortable and as safe as possible.
“I was initially offered a dietary technician billet, but the only way I was signing that recruiting contract was if I was going EOD,” said McCrary. “I knew it was going to be demanding mentally and physically, but I also knew it was going to be the best way for me to serve my country.”
McCrary acknowledges that a huge part of why she’s thriving in the dangerous job field is because of the leadership provided by her senior leaders and the rapport she’s been able to build with her team. Eventually McCrary would like to become an EOD team leader, but for now, she is enjoying learning how to be a better technician and more effective Soldier.
“As with almost any job, you’re going to need to have tough skin. Especially in EOD where you need to learn how to take criticism, realize when you’re wrong, and when you can do something better, because in most situations, it’s life or death. I try to use every opportunity to fine tune my skills because when it’s game time, you really do perform how you practice.”
Capt. Adam Daino, 717th EOD Company Commander and McCrary’s supervisor, has worked with the young EOD tech on missions back home and monitors her progress while deployed. “Spc. McCrary is an incredibly motivated EOD Operator and has proven her expertise while conducting more than 50 counter-IED combat missions in Afghanistan,” Daino said. “I have no doubt she will make an incredible EOD team leader in the future. We’re extremely fortunate to have her on the team.”
McCrary has never shied away from hard work or pyrotechnics for that matter, having set fire to her mother’s bed when she was five-years-old. So although her mother wasn’t surprised her youngest child decided to “blow things up” for a living, she didn’t exactly welcome the idea.
“I’m sure she would like me to be behind a desk somewhere, but that’s just not who I am,” McCrary said. I’ve always been fiercely independent and my personality fits extremely well within the EOD community, it’s who I am now.”
As for women serving in combat, McCrary supports the decision and encourages her fellow servicewomen to rise to the occasion.
“If it’s something that a servicewoman desires to do and she is mentally and physically capable to withstand the demands of the mission, of course, I wholeheartedly support her,” McCrary said. “I never understood why this was an issue. We all have the responsibility and the opportunity to represent servicewomen in a positive light.”
McCrary actually urges current and future servicewomen not to settle for other’s expectations of them and not to try to use their gender as any kind of scapegoat or advantage, for that will set servicewomen everywhere back.
“I look forward to the day when people aren’t surprised a girl is on the team, that they know I know my job, and they have 100 percent confidence in my capabilities,” she adamantly said. “Until then, I’m going to keep pressing on, being a proficient EOD technician in the best platoon in the company.”