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June 12, 2015 Desert Wings 5
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EOD, from 1
“The reason we had to dispose of came out, inventoried and photo- Air Force photographs by Jet Fabara
it is because of the explosive con- graphed everything. The process
tent that’s contained within each took approximately six months, but Above: Steve Speandorf, NASA Armstrong Flight
item. We have stuff dating back to they gathered the size and weight Research Center explosive safety officer, starts
A-1 Sky Raider seats all the way up of everything; this way they could laying out an expired rocket engine during a recent
to our F-16, F-18, B-52 and T-38,” plan how much C-4 they should detonation and disposal event June 8 at the Open
Gidner said. “Even though there is use,” said Gidner. “Due to our Burn/Open Detonation range. NASAAFRC partnered
a value, historically, to these items, range time, we had to sort out the with the 412th Civil Engineer Group Explosive
pyrocatridges usually don’t last and biggest items we needed disposed Ordnance Disposal Team. Since a growing number
will usually degrade over time. of and planned for a future disposal of explosive ejection seat items had been in storage
There’s also the possibility that it event.” at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Life
may become unstable over time Support shop over the years and needed to be
and that’s what happened to the According to Severe, the EOD disposed of, the NASA AFRC Life Support shop
YANKEE rockets. They weren’t team used approximately 412 sought out the assistance of the EOD team to
safe to transport anymore, so we pounds of C-4 explosive. dispose of these expired and potentially volatile items.
had to get rid of them here.” Left: Two 412th Civil Engineer Group Explosive
“This was definitely a first with Ordnance Disposal technicians prepare to dispose
Although Gidner said they NASA. Although we had to go of approximately 500 pounds of potentially volatile
brought out a good portion of items through an extensive process, expired NASA ordnance June 8 at the Open Burn/
that NASA had stockpiled, this which involved writing up memo- Open Detonation range.
was just the first of two detonation randums, between NASA, EOD
and disposal events due to limited and the base, it was a valuable ex-
range time. perience for our young EOD tech-
nicians as well,” said Severe.
“When we contacted EOD, they
Tech. Sgt. James Bennett, 412th Civil Engineer Group
Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician and NCOIC
of Administration and Technical Orders, unpacks C-4
explosives during a detonation and disposal event June
8 at the Open Burn/Open Detonation range. The EOD
team used approximately 412 pounds of C-4 explosive to
dispose of approximately 500 pounds of NASA ordnance
that had been stockpiled for 30 to 50 years.
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