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First South Texas Bilateral EOD Exercise Successful

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050203-01
Release Date: 2/3/2005 8:58:00 AM

By Michael Antoine, Naval Station Ingleside Public Affairs

INGLESIDE, Texas (NNS) -- The Navy's first bilateral Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) exercise with the French Navy was held in South Texas in January.

For roughly three days, nine French Sailors from Clearance Diving Team (CDT) Atlantic occupied the Mine Warfare Training area on Padre Island, based out of Brest, Brittany, France. They trained alongside 16 Sailors from EOD Mobile Unit (MU) 6, Dets. 2 and 4, based at Naval Station Ingleside.

"This was a great chance for us to conduct training," said Lt. Cmdr. A. K. Williams, of Mine Warfare Command, who helped coordinate the exercise. "It provided a great foundation for us to work together on a larger scale should that time come. Having done this at the detachment level, we will be able to mesh together more quickly to accomplish any mission given us."

According to Lt. Patrick Gerhardstein, of EODMU 6, Det. 2, the teams learned a lot from each other.

"It took a lot of teamwork to accomplish all we did this week," he said. "Things ran very smoothly, and we learned a lot from each other."

Gerhardstein's sentiments are echoed by Lt. A. J. Kyle, from EODMU 6, Det. 4. "Everyone was flexible, did a good job, and were eager to help where needed."

Kyle also stated that this was the first time for many of the EOD Sailors to take part in a "full-blown" beach operation. And they found that it was not an easy task, especially when working with another country.

"Both teams followed the same steps, but had different ways of doing each," Kyle said. "But both ways were very successful, as we both had our mines on the beach within 30 minutes of each other."

The French and American EOD divers camped on the beach three days, two nights. One of them was Lt. Cmdr. Ronan Masseron, commanding officer of CDT Atlantic from the French Navy.

According to Masseron, his personnel, along with two other French Navy EOD teams, carry on similar training year-round in France. But this was a terrific opportunity to not only train with U.S. teams, but also to learn from each other.

"We have different approaches to our mission - the U.S. team did things more simply and efficiently, and we were much more cautious in handling the ammo," Masseron said. "But I will see if we can incorporate what we saw. I was very impressed with the U.S. skills, professionalism, leadership and outstanding teamwork."

During the exercise, personnel practiced their skills in all five phases of the mine warfare operations - location, neutralization, verification, raise-tow-beach and exploitation.

Williams stated that this is the first U.S./French exercise conducted in South Texas. In 2002, this same French team worked with Mobile Unit 6 in Bahrain.

"We felt very welcome here in South Texas," Masseron said. "We are glad that we have the chance to increase the level of cooperation with U.S. EOD divers. I hope we have a chance to meet again working together in real-world operations."