Dover EOD Airmen: 'Initial success or total failure'

Published July 5, 2011
By Airman 1st Class Jacob Morgan
436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Traveling south on a Provincial Reconstruction Team towards Farah, Afghanistan, three Air Force explosive ordnance disposal members were tasked with providing cover for a convoy of vehicles with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

The area was dangerous and Master Sgt. Jennifer Burch, 436th Civil Engineer Squadron EOD team leader, said she knew her team could be in danger at any point in time.

"In that area, it's not if you're going to get hit," said Burch. "It's when."

While prepositioning in an area for the convoy to come through, one of the vehicles with Burch and her team got stuck and couldn't move.

Immediately, she and her team were under small arms fire, and as the fight went on, it got more intense, said Burch.

While returning fire, one of Burch's Airmen was shot and later that day died from his injuries on Sept. 12, 2009.

"We are there doing a job," said Sergeant Burch. "This situation was traumatic, but you've got to know yourself and bounce back."

Unfortunately, this type of story is known all too well by the Airman of the 436th CES EOD flight at Dover Air Force Base, Del. However, providing cover fire and traveling in convoys is only a small part of the EOD mission.

"Our mission overseas is drastically different at each location," said Sergeant Burch. "Physical and mental fitness come into play. We have to know our Airmen have what it takes, and we train for it."

The 436th CES' EOD Airmen work out and train every day. The work-outs have to be intense to be ready for whatever they may encounter. The training is much like other career fields -- it consists of learning something and then applying it. However, unlike other career fields, the time a task is done it could be the last.

The pipeline to becoming an EOD technician is more than a year long. It starts after basic training in a two-week preliminary course at Sheppard AFB, Texas.

"A lot is thrown at you initially," said Sergeant Burch.

The rest of the pipeline continues at Eglin AFB, Fla., where joint training is run by the U.S. Navy. The intensity of training is persistent throughout. The purpose of the long and hard training is to allow EOD technicians to protect people and assets from physical, chemical, radiation and even nuclear types of explosions. Any time an explosive is involved, from plastic explosives to World War II era munitions, EOD is there.

When training is done and the EOD technicians get to Dover AFB, they encounter a whole new mission. Team Dover's EOD team is unique because of their mission off-base and their mortuary division.

From World War I until 1972 the Department of Defense had a policy to dump munitions into the ocean. Part of this took place in the Atlantic where some of the local clam companies find their clams, said Sergeant Burch. Part of Team Dover EOD's responsibility is to respond to these companies' calls and disable or transport the munitions.

The other unique mission to the Dover EOD Airmen is the mortuary division where two EOD technicians are always on-call ready to scan a transfer case for any possible unexploded ordnance.

Either at home or embedded with the 82nd Airborne Division, Air Force EOD technicians like those at Dover AFB have to train for any situation and be ready to act 100 percent properly the first time.

"Training is paramount and it is only second to the mission," said Sergeant Burch. "Dover Air Force Base's mission is unique so we must be ready at all times. Just like we need to be ready at a moment's notice to defeat the networks of improvised explosive device makers in a combat zone."