184th Ordnance Battalion (EOD)
The 184th Ordnance Battalion (EOD) accomplish the Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) support activity. The EOD battalion operates under FORSCOM (52nd Ordnance Group (EOD)) command and control with several companies (EOD) strategically located within each control area. Installations and MACOMs do not have a direct area support EOD responsibility.
The Army finally honored Doug Rhodes for his actions of bravery during the war in Vietnam 29 years earlier. Doug Rhodes, known by friends and family as Dusty, received the Bronze Star with "V" Device for valor in a ceremony during March 1997. The official award citation reads: "Specialist Five Rhodes displayed heroic actions by placing himself at risk by exposing himself to enemy fire to make possible the successful completion of a very dangerous mission." The "mission" in this case was to place a pin in a land mine so it would not explode. Easy enough except that another young soldier was standing on the mine and if he lifted his foot - the mine would detonate. And-Vietcong snipers were firing on Rhodes, who served as an ordnance and explosives specialist, and his team leader as they made their way to the young soldier. To draw the enemy snipers' fire, Rhodes moved to an open area away from the soldier on the land mine while his team leader finished the procedure to render the mine safe. Once the soldier could safely lift his foot off the mine, the three soldiers ran for cover and escaped the site via helicopter. Rhodes was assigned to the 184th Ordnance Battalion, Qui Nhon, for only six weeks before this incident.
It's a long way from the jungles of Vietnam to the Pentagon's "Hall of Heroes." And it was almost 30 years since events led Roy Judkins from one to the other. The former Army specialist made the journey to receive long overdue recognition. During an 02 February 1998 Pentagon ceremony, Judkins received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in Vietnam from Army Gen. Henry H. Shelton, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman. The decoration is the nation's second highest award. The transient nature his duties, combined with the confusion which often exists in a combat zone, meant that Judkins' paperwork for the award was lost, if it even got submitted at all.
Judkins is credited with "extraordinary heroism" for actions in early December 1968 while serving as an ordnance expert with the 184th Ordnance Battalion. During that month, he was called to the operating room of an Army field hospital to assist in some unusual surgery. His mission: remove a live 40mm grenade embedded in the body of a badly wounded soldier. In what Shelton described as a "shining example of America at its best," not only did Judkins successfully complete that mission, he repeated it a few days later, removing a grenade from the body of yet another soldier. During this same time period, he is credited with extracting a fellow soldier from a minefield while under enemy fire.
