"One minute out," he shouts from the open door of an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter, holding up one finger to show his team the call. He checks the anchor points of a rope he is preparing to drop from the helicopter, then looks out the door at the quickly approaching ship coming into view, before glancing at the forces on the helicopter readying themselves to exit the aircraft.

"Get ready." At 30 seconds out, all of the ropers show gloved hands, and the helicopter rope suspension technique (HRST) master examines the landing zone on the ship, ensuring there is no obstruction on the deck.

"Unbuckle," he signals. The personnel unhook their safety lanyards, and the HRST master looks outside to watch for the insertion point to steady under the helicopter and waits for the air crew to tell him to drop the rope.

"Rope, rope, rope!" yells the HRST master as he pushes the rope out the door onto the deck, confirming that it is not tangled or fouled.

"Go, go, go!" he yells and signals, as one-by-one, the forces slide out of the helicopter to begin their mission.

After ensuring the safe insertion of the special operations team, the HRST master is the last to exit the aircraft to start the mission.

These skills, while seemingly rudimentary, are vital to a successful mission, and these are the skills that ten explosive ordnance disposal technicians learned at the two-week HRST/cast master course of instruction at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, March 12-23.

"The job of the HRST/cast master boils down to safety and interoperability," said Cmdr. Craig Smith, commanding officer of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Training and Evaluation Unit (TEU) 2. "The HRST/cast masters can now deploy anywhere in the world with special operations forces to conduct highly specialized missions."

The two week course is split into two sections, HRST and cast. Some of the techniques covered in the HRST portion include rappelling with descending devices and fast-roping and special patrol insertion/extraction (SPIE). The cast portion covers safely inserting swimmers into the water and recovering them back into the helicopter when the mission is complete. All techniques are trained and practiced in daytime and nighttime conditions.

The course is not about learning all of the techniques though; these skills are already in a Navy EOD technician's toolbox. The course is about planning, briefing, managing and safely leading teams using these skills during training and missions.

"The graduates of this course are expected to go out and safely get the forces to the mission," said Chris Wagner, EODTEU 2 air operations trainer examiner. "They go through all of the motions in a controlled and safe manner at the tower, and each person gets a chance to lead the others in the operation."

After training at the tower, the class spent a day honing their skills, setting up rigging and attaching ropes to helicopters before a day of casting and roping onto rooftops at a training compound.

"There is no training comparable to the real thing," Wagner said. "To get these students up in the helicopters to get their hands on the equipment and perform like they will when on a mission is going to be extremely valuable for them in the long run."

When the rotor wash has settled, the gear is all stowed and long after the sun has gone down, the graduates of the HRST/cast master course will go back to their platoons with this new skillset and added responsibility of keeping their brothers and sisters in arms safe on highly specialized missions.

"Fast roping, rappelling and casting are all tools that EOD technicians have in their toolbox. The HRST/cast master course is an extension of that and allows for increased mobility during our operations," Smith said. "These technicians will now be expected to not only complete the EOD mission but are going to be instrumental in the planning, safety and execution of the future missions that they will go on."

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2, visit www.navy.mil/.