CEIBA, Puerto Rico – The bright Caribbean sun beams down on Airmen diligently working, making the heat and humidity hotter than their weather app displays. The Airmen silently and not so silently rock out, singing under their breaths along to classic rock and whatever else the speaker plays. Tirelessly turning torque wrenches and covering wires, they work together like a well-oiled machine, building various bombs for the Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard leveraging the joint forces to continue disrupting illicit drug trafficking and protecting the homeland.
Airmen assigned to the 346th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron munitions systems flight continuously see firsthand the impact they are making, further projecting U.S. Southern Commands mission and priorities.
“[During] our day-to-day operations out here, we pretty much run cradle to grave operations with these munitions,” said a senior airman, a munitions systems specialist assigned to the 346th EABS. “[When] we get the munitions from the manufacturer, we get them off the aircraft, from the cradle like a baby, to the grave whenever we load them onto an aircraft, they fly, drop them and come back”
Munitions systems specialists are responsible for completing the proper paperwork to ensure accountability of each weapon system within the stockpile, which involves processing expenditures of the ordnance to keep track of all the weapons which have passed through their custody.
“We house a little bit of everything here for everybody across the joint force,” said the senior airman. “We have Marine Corps assets, we have Coast Guard assets, and we have of course Air Force assets.”
This partnership proceeds more than housing their equipment. Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen work together to unload incoming ammunition and consolidate the planning process to safely store munitions before loading weapons onto different aircraft to exert warfighting capabilities.
“When we first got here, we were helping the Marines move equipment,” said the senior airman. “For weeks it was one 40-foot trailer after another, each [trailer] full of munitions that we helped move to store them in the proper area.”
One of the challenges the munitions Airmen have ran into in a deployed environment is battling nature, one of the strongest uncontrollable forces.
“We have buildings here that have been abandoned for over 20 years,” said the senior airman. “Right now, a large part of our job here is getting those structures back to being suitable so we can house the munitions properly. We have a lot of work ahead of us as far as getting those structures safe and sound, and capable to rock and roll.”
They started out by clearing back the foliage from the roads, pushing the jungle back little by little. While collaborating with Marines, with the Littoral Combat Force-24, the 346th EABS civil engineering flight and contractors, the munitions systems Airmen worked on restoring the buildings, ensuring the structures are safe and capable to properly store the munitions. Making the roads serviceable and rehabilitating the buildings enables the Airmen to focus on their main mission of building, maintaining and safeguarding munitions.
“As a munitions [specialist], you are building bombs that actually make a difference,” said the senior airman. “It feels like, what I would imagine, a surgeon doing surgery for the first time feels, the feeling is amazing.”
Munitions Airmen in a deployed environment have the unique opportunity to build live bombs, strengthening the U.S. Southern Command and Department of War-directed operations, and enacting the president’s priorities to counter narco-trafficking networks and safeguard American communities.
“Here, in the USSOUTHCOM Area of Responsibility, we’re out here, countering these threats,” said the senior airman. “Building bombs that are hitting targets, carrying out kinetic lethal strikes, preventing narcotics from coming within our borders.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2024 it was estimated that over 80,000 Americans died due to illegal and illicit drug overdoses. In 2025, the estimated number dropped to 70,000 as the president declared stopping illicit drug trafficking a primary priority on his very first day in office of his second term. Signing an executive order on January 20, 2025, swiftly followed up with an escalation in military-backed counterterrorism.
“It is time for us to treat them like terrorists, and by us being here and doing what we are doing, we are directly affecting change down here,” stated the senior Airman.