Page 1 - Desert Lightning News, Nellis AFB, June 23 2017
P. 1
vol. 1, no. 2 Serving Southern Nevada’s mililtary community, including Nellis, Creech and NTTR june 23, 2017
An Aerotech news And review publicAtion • www.Aerotechnews.com
EOD conducts overnight training exercise
by Airman 1st Class Andrew D. Sarver Air Force photograph by Senior Airman Joshua Kleinholz
Nellis AFB, Nev.
Tech Sgt. Nathaniel Jackson, 99th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technician, begins a roadside bomb clearing
Explosive ordnance disposal teams operation during a training event June 7, 2017, at the Nevada Test and Training Range. The EOD team members were taking part in
assigned to the 99th Civil Engineer series of training scenarios designed to test their skills in low-light situations.
Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.,
executed an overnight exercise June 7-8 They discovered a hidden explosive searching through the buildings, they maker’s knowledge, resources, materi-
at the Nevada Test and Training Range which, if triggered, would simulate finally reached the kidnapped victim, als and their imagination.
as part of their deployment readiness the destruction of the entire road. The but there was a bigger issue. They
exercises. team began carefully clearing the sur- noticed the victim had a suicide vest “We wanted to take some of our newer
rounding area and began defusing the attached to them and immediately the Airmen and show them tactics, training
From roadside bombs to hostage situa- roadside bomb. Although this was a stakes were raised. and procedures that they haven’t had
tions, the EOD technicians had to identify low-light situation, the team was able extensive training on,†said Brousseau.
the threat and defeat it without triggering to successfully defuse the explosive. Not only did the team have to rescue
a detonation. the victim, they had to first defuse and By combining their experiences and
“The goal was for the teams to step remove the vest to ensure everyone’s technical knowledge, the teams were able
“When we created the scenarios, a outside their comfort zone and be able safety. After calming the victim down to operate during day and night condi-
few of us had quite a bit of deployment to operate in both day and night,†said and carefully identifying the method tions in an unfamiliar location and suc-
experience and came together to develop Brousseau. they would use to defuse the bomb, cessfully defeat each scenario they faced.
the most realistic problems that could the team swiftly executed their plan
mimic the things we’ve seen in the past,†Early the next morning, one of and successfully freed the victim after In a world where there are no second
said Tech. Sgt. Robert Brousseau, 99th the teams responded to a simulated defusing the vest. chances and failure can have catastrophic
CES EOD quality assurance branch NCO kidnapping in a village. As the team results, the 99th CES EOD technicians
in charge. arrived, they were surrounded by Mitchell said the types of impro- proved they are ready for the unexpected
buildings which are commonly found vised explosive devices available are in any deployed environment, day or
The training proctors divided the in deployed environments. After limitless. It comes down to the bomb night.
technicians into three teams and as- — See additional photos on Pages 12 and 13.
signed them various real-world inspired
scenarios they had to face. This was also
a new location for the teams, so there was
no home-field advantage.
“Exposing our Airmen to these sce-
narios in a training environment allows
us to work out any kinks,†said Staff
Sgt. John Mitchell, 99th CES EOD team
leader. “In our line of work, we don’t get
a second chance.â€
A team pulled up to their first scenario
where a roadside bomb posed a threat
to a convoy route. They were told one
explosive had already detonated and the
convoy spotted another just a few feet in
front of them. The team had to act fast
to evacuate the injured and disable the
threat. Although the team was unfamiliar
with the training location, they success-
fully located, identified and defused the
explosive.
As night fell, the teams faced a new
scenario involving remote controlled
explosive devices. One of the teams re-
sponded to reports of unusual activity on
the side of a dirt road. Under the cover of
darkness, the teams donned on their night
vision goggles and began searching the
area for anything that seemed out of place.
INSIDE: Commentary - 2; News - 3-7; Feature - 8-9; Hometown Heroes - 10-11 Commentary - 2; News - 3-7; Feature - 8-9; Hometown Heroes - 10-11
