It is pitch black out. The only thing visible are pairs of eyes tinted green from the glow of night vision goggles. To the eyes looking through the lenses of the goggles, the field is clear. “THREAT!” shouts an ambiguous voice behind the shooters. The shooters raise their rifles to their eyes, and the eruption of gunfire breaks the stillness in the air, and then nothing - barely audible footsteps and the seemingly deafening sound of cicadas in the muggy central Virginia heat.

This scene unfolded time and time again at the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) intermediate expeditionary combat skills (IECS) and advanced expeditionary combat skills (AECS) courses at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Virginia, July 21-Aug. 3.

“These courses are designed to increase combat survivability among deployable EOD technicians,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Fox, EOD Training and Evaluation Unit (TEU) 2 combat skills division officer. “They provide the EOD force with the combat proficiency required to seamlessly integrate into joint maneuver forces, special operations forces and/or multinational forces. Additionally, they allow the force to remain flexible enough to operate in small elements throughout uncertain environments by providing advanced unit level training.”

The extensive list of topics covered in the courses include application of small arms, land navigation, mission planning inputs, small unit tactics, special operations urban combat and internal movement techniques, all conducted at day and night, and all making the EOD force a much more capable and important asset to the fight.

“Traditionally, the Navy has not been a ground force, so basic soldiering skills have not been an area of concentration,” said Chief Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Gene Bell, EODTEU 2 combat skills leading chief petty officer. “However, with the proliferation of the IED threat developed over a decade and a half of war, the Navy EOD technician has been pushed onto the front lines to integrate with various combat units. This ability to integrate with a combat force as enabling assets leads to mission success.”

The core skills learned during the course are based on the principles of shoot, move and communicate across multiple platforms and terrain.

“As an EOD technician downrange, your value is in your ability to handle IED situations as they occur,” Fox said. “The ability to keep the train moving down a safe track, the manner in which you get to these situations is where the skills learned from this course come into play.”

The classes, only given to deployable EOD technicians on sea rotations, build on themselves and set the students up to crawl, walk and run. Combat shooting and crew-served weapons lead into small unit tactics and special operations in urban combat, and build into convoy fundamentals and accumulation drills where the technicians show proficiency on everything they have learned throughout the course.

At the end of the course, success is marked by the EOD technicians’ ability to assimilate information, gain proficiency and make decisions rapidly.

“The skills learned during this course are the skills required to integrate safely as a force multiplier during combat operations,” Bell said.

EODGRU 2, headquartered at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story (JEBLCFS), oversees all East Coast-based Navy EOD mobile units, including one forward-deployed mobile unit in Spain, as well as EOD Expeditionary Support Unit 2, EODTEU 2, and the only East Coast-based mobile diving and salvage unit, MDSU 2.

U.S. Navy EOD is the world's premier combat force for countering explosive hazards and conducting expeditionary diving and salvage. 
 

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