Hollywood has taken a few liberties with the career field of Senior Airman Joshua Holbrook.
He’s an Air Force explosive ordnance expert, part of a select group of airmen who serve as the bomb squad. High drama will ensue when someone like Hollbrook stares down an improvised explosive device with the clock ticking, especially if he’s a danger junkie who likes to snip wires.
That might be how it’s portrayed in the movie “Hurt Locker,” but it’s not how it works in real life.
Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialists thrive on preparation and training, not drama, and that was on display Wednesday during a multiteam exercise at Langley Air Force Base.
The exercise, which began Monday and runs through the week, involves explosive ordnance teams from East Coast Air Force bases, including Langley, plus representatives from the city of Norfolk and Virginia State Police.
Each team is running through different scenarios before competing against each other in a final event that will take place at several sites around the base, testing speed, skill and safety.
Wednesday’s training included the safe detonation of an explosive charge meant to simulate dynamite. According to the scenario, an EOD team was called in when a family found dynamite in an outdoor shed of a recently deceased elderly relative.
The explosive material was taken to a safe distance and safely detonated.
No drama. A good thing.
The biggest misconception about explosive ordnance specialists is their lack of regard for personal safety, said Hollbrook, from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“It’s just the opposite,” he said. “It takes us a long time to do what we’re doing because we have to get it right the first time.”
Being calm and meticulous doesn’t mean they are laid back.
“Most of us are Type A kind of guys,” said Master Sgt. Taylor Saum, the Langley-based coordinator for the exercise. “We want to be in charge and we want to make decisions. But we don’t do anything we haven’t run through in our heads a hundred times.”
Throughout the week, the teams will compare notes as they tackle different problems. When the day is over, they will stay on base and talk shop. That informal cross-talk also has value, because while EOD specialists receive the same basic training, their experience is different.
“If you took 10 EOD teams and gave them the exact same problem, they’d do it 10 different ways, every time,” Saum said.
The training exercise is dubbed Llama Fury 3.0. It was held for the first time in 2015 at Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina and involved four teams. This year marks the first time Staff Sgt. Aaron D’Angelo could train with his peers.
The sharing of ideas has been well worth it, he said. For example, he’s from Joint Base Andrews, which has dealt in urban environments and worked with the Secret Service in dealing with VIPs. They can impart that perspective while learning from other teams.
The rapidly changing nature of improvised explosive devices is another reason to exchange notes. The airmen couldn’t specify how tactics change, but they must work constantly to stay ahead of adversaries.
Source: Daily Press