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U.S., Spanish EOD Combine for Exercise

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS030516-12

Release Date: 5/16/2003 11:40:00 AM

By Chief Journalist (SW) Dan Smithyman, Naval Station Rota Public Affairs

ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- Each year, Rota's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) Detachment (Det) 8 teams with its Spanish counterparts for an exercise to hone their skills in two different areas: Improvised Explosive Ordnance response and Surface Ordnance Disposal with Unidad Especial Desactivado de Explosivos (U.E.D.E.) unit, and mine countermeasures and harbor defense diving with Unidad De Buceadores de MCM. Both of these elite units are stationed in Cartegena.

This year's exercise, called 'Magre 03-1,' began with the three teams planning and executing the disarmament of a mock improvise chemical device. The scenario involved an unattended suitcase left near the quarterdeck of a hospital. Intelligence gathered indicated it was a small bomb built to release a chemical and set to go off in three hours. The Spanish and U.S. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams responded in a joint operation to investigate and disarm the threat.

"We have a U.S. and Spanish team combined to defeat the scenario," said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Tim Branum, officer in charge (OIC), EODMU 8.

"The purpose of these kinds of exercises is to promote discussion [between the two cultures]," said Master Chief Boatswain's Mate (EOD) Joe Touchton. "When you train together with other experienced and knowledgeable EOD personnel talking through ideas, warnings and various problems, you use the expertise of every man in the room, and that ultimately results in everyone learning a few things."

Touchton said in a real case scenario, the OIC would be calling the shots, getting feedback from his team and then making a final decision about how to proceed in investigating a bomb threat. He said it would run more smoothly, but wouldn't generate much discussion, which is the purpose of Magre 03-1.

In the training scenario, the suitcase is discovered and reported. EOD responds while the hospital is evacuated. A three-man team (two Americans and one Spaniard) dresses in chemical suits. Team leader, Chief Boatswain's Mate (EOD) Paul Seely, determines the battle dress from intelligence reports. His options include full bomb suits, chem/bio suits or variations of the two. In this case, a chemical suit is proper gear. While the three prepare to investigate the suitcase, the rest of the U.S./Spanish team prepares a field decontamination station to cleanse the three-man team in case of contamination.

"We first took x-rays of the suitcase to determine the contents and configuration of the bomb inside," Seely said. Based on that information, Seely decided to use a device that shoots high-pressure water in a concentrated beam into the suitcase that will disrupt the circuit and disarm the bomb.

"Manually opening the case is almost always a last resort," Seely said. "It's too difficult, in most cases, to determine the exact nature of a device, depending on how many triggers, amount of wires and other contents of an enclosed case. In this case, we determined the water shot to be the safest procedure."

After the water blast, the team returned to the suitcase to perform reconnaissance and make a determination whether the blast was effective and test for a possible chemical agent spill. The water blast worked perfectly, disarming the detonator while preserving the chemical in its container inside the suitcase.

"The time to find out about how each teams does business is not when an emergency happens and you end up having to work together," Branum said. "It's in a training environment."