Warren EOD conducts safety day

  • Published
  • By Elizabeth McClain
  • 90th Civil Engineer Squadron
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  The 90th Civil Engineer Squadron's explosive ordnance disposal flight conducted a safety day Nov. 13 to allow EOD forces to recall past response incidents and consider different ways to apply safety to these incidents.

Due to high operations tempo and combat stress involved in the flight's multi-layered mission, it's easy to be consumed by the mentality to just get the job done, said Master Sgt. Kelly Cunningham, EOD flight chief. The EOD safety day called for a period of refocus onto safety.

The first half of the safety day was dedicated to guest speakers from the 90th Medical Group, including mental and public health, to discuss combat-related issues.
"This portion of the day allowed for serious, open and frank discussions," said Brent Willis, EOD training manager. "The speakers were awesome."

The second half of the day was dedicated to a case study of the 10 killed-in-action incidents and other injury cases. According to Mr. Willis, it was the most significant part of the whole training day.

"Along with the great training we all received from breaking down each of the case studies, we were able to go through the training with [an Airman] who will be deploying in a month for the first time," he said. "We were able to go over every general safety area that troops generally trip up on when they first deploy."

One of the biggest safety obstacles the Warren EOD team members had to overcome was during a mission that shut down the airfield in Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.
A contractor dug up a buried bomb containing 500 pounds of explosives designed to destroy airfields. The bomb was air-dropped during the Soviet invasion and was still armed and dangerous.

The Warren team eliminated the threat and returned the airfield to normal operations. The bomb was designed to detonate if handled improperly. To complete their task, the EOD team had to conduct extensive coordination to ensure the safety of multi-million dollar aircraft, nearby Airmen and the airfield.

After extensive safety coordination, the EOD team neutralized the bomb eliminating the threat with zero damage.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Air Force EOD has sustained 10 killed-in-action members and more than 60 Purple-Heart recipients.

Ultimately, safety is everyone's first mission, Mr. Willis said.