From the AP and NPR reports, you’d think that the the big deal about the military’s revamped IED training course was new, mock buildings that the government put up for the class. You’d be wrong.
I went down to the military’s bomb squad school over the summer, while those buildings were being constructed. (Here’s a picture, right) I talked to the guys who are running the IED program. The new structures are the least important part of the change that’s going on in bomb squad training. Think of it like the movies: The scenery matters, sure. But what really counts is the acting, and the plot. Here’s what I wrote about the school for Wired:
When [a bomb technician] was deployed to the Balkans in the late 1990s, his main task was to sweep unexploded ordnance from battlefields and firing ranges once the action was over. He followed a cold war playbook — when to get the tools out, when to just blow something up. But that playbook only works when you’re up against mass-produced bombs. Guerrillas in Iraq cobble together weapons from whatever they can find. A bombmaker in Mosul might use dynamite and a timer from a washing machine. One in Baghdad lashes artillery shells to a motorcycle battery and a cordless telephone. Insurgent cells swap tactics on Web sites, and when American forces catch on, the terrorists move to newer tactics…
The ever-shifting conflict is forcing bomb squads to develop new, more improvisational tactics. On the red clay ranges of the military’s EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] school in Niceville, Florida, Marine gunnery sergeant Eric Slachter teaches the next generation of bomb-disposal troops. His syllabus: There is no syllabus. “The basic classes here, they’re all about following procedure. This is an advanced course — you think on your feet. You’ve got a brain, some experience. Now use it,” he says. “We’ll take it from the headlines, what killed a GI. We’ll make that device. And we’ll learn to defeat it.”
Not too long ago, IEDs were treated as almost an afterthought during explosives training. They were the pipe bombs that 16 year-olds left in school libraries — kid’s stuff, really. Real men handled roomfuls of grenades, or thousand-pound building-killers.
Some of the feaux-buildings at Eglin reflect that history. There’s a mock library there, in fact, with books and everything. But that’s a relic of the past, not a pointer to the future. Which is why it’s particularly silly for the press to focus in on it.
(Full disclosure: NPR’s Phillip Davis interviewed me for his story on the IED school. I tried to tell him all this. But I didn’t make it into his piece. Some might say, then, that this post is sour grapes. But really, I’m just sour about the point of the story being missed.)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
All the ex-marines and ex-soldiers working for NPR didn’t help clue them in? Isn’t their credibility with military reporting based on their first-hand knowledge and experince with it? If I didnt know better, I’d suspect that NPR has about as much experience with the military as I do with 17th century french ballet. My world is falling apart!
any indication on % of unexploded US ordinance used in IED’s in Iraq? Where do the “shells” come from?
JF:
My understanding is that the shells are coming from Saddam-era stockpiles — as opposed to unexploded US ordnance.
nms
I was EOD during Vietnam. One off the hardest parts of the training was what was then called Mines and Boobytraps (not as sexy as IEDs, but the world was simpler then). I observed a critical fact during that phase of the training, some people had a little voice in the back of their heads that they listened to and others didn’t. You could squeak past the test without the voice, but you were just looking for things that had already been done. If you had the voice, there would be times when you would just keep looking at something as it just didn’t seem right. Usually you found something you missed the first time. I recently saw a program about Navy EOD on the Military Channel and I was shocked. If this is really the level of training and procedures that are used in the field, any V.C. sapper would wipe these guys out. They would find one booby trap and quit looking, no looking for multi-stage devices or back-up detonating systems.
High tech has a place, but trained eye and instinct are far better tools for dealing with non-standard ordnance.
I wish the EOD guys over there all the luck in the world.
Rick Smith
My son is graduating from EOD school soon. From everything that he has gone through in his training, the ARMY has the best of the best. Not saying that any other branch is not as good, I am just not familier with any other branch. EOD school is by far one of the hardest schools in the military. Not just anybody can get through it. One must work hard and earn his badge. As a parent I am very proud that my son has made it through. It was not easy at all! We, as a family, endured all of the dreaded tests and rejoiced at a 85% or better. I feel my son will be in good hands when he is deployed to do the job he has been trained so very well to do. What he and all of his classmates have accomplished is something that our country as a whole should be proud of. After all, not everybody would put their lives on the line for our country. So I say congratulations to all of our EOD graduates in the past, present and the future, and THANK YOU from an American citizen and the Mom of a Soldier. God Bless.
As a former grad of NavScolEOD, I am here to say to those writers….STOP CALLING IT BOMB SQUAD SCHOOL…IT’S NOT HDS…! there had to get that off my chest. EOD techs are there not only to render safe a device or piece of ordnance, they are there to find out why this occured–bad fuze, hung striker…what! (albiet secondary), they understand “why” a weapon system was designed, how its supposed to be employed and its functioning and effects…they just don’t go down range set up a pan and shoot…LIKE HDS grads.
So for the love and sake of these men and women who do the real deal, stop calling it Bomb Squad School, believe it or not…it offends, NavScolEOD is one of several (Brits, Perhaps Canadian and Isreal)EOD schools in the world that are truly the “Harvard” of EOD institutions.
Jason
Former 749th EOD Team Leader
As a veteran of the E.O.D. field from the late 80′s I can say that I have more respect for the latest E.O.D. technicians today. I wish all a good day and hope that you come home with your crimpers in tact.
G.H.
I was over there with Eric (mentioned in the piece above) and let me tell you that the press is our worst enemy when it comes to protraying the efforts to counter anything dealing with Iraq. Let us check and see Eric was the lead instructor and what was he teaching,,,,, exactly what he had just learned from his tour in Ramadi!!! I ended up hiting Fallujah at the same time but the point is you can not set a standard on what someone has to do in those situations; you have to teach them how to use a logic tree and formulate a plan on the fly. If you can't think on your feet and be flexable when your robot just lost all signal down range but you still have to clear this area of explosive devices while possibly under sniper fire then everyone is screwed. This article is labled "Bomb Squad story , blown" but I think it should read "clueless article for a deadline" If you are going to do a story know what you are talking about before you make a fool of youself.