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USARPAC Visits EOD Group 1 Prototype Camp

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050621-08
Release Date: 6/21/2005 12:29:00 PM

By Journalist 1st Class (SW) Phil Beaufort, Maritime Force Protection Command Public Affairs

GLADSTONE, Australia (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Army Pacific, Lt. Gen. John M. Brown III visited a prototype modular camp, June 19, being field tested by Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Group 1 during Exercise Talisman Saber '05 in Queensland, Australia.

Under its current configuration, two thirds of the camp is located along the coast in Gladstone, Australia, and specifically configured for use by military divers. The other third of the camp is manned by EOD Group 1 staff and is set up as a command and control center at Talisman Saber headquarters 60 miles north, in the town of Rockhampton.

“I'm very impressed with this camp facility," Brown said. "It's mobile, it has the specialty equipment necessary to sustain dive teams, it works with combined dive teams from Army, Navy or even from our allies from other countries. This is a great prototype, and some folks who know their business very well designed a lot of the equipment I saw here."

This is only the second time the fully self-contained camp has been field tested. A smaller version was deployed during Exercise Foal Eagle '04 in Korea last year.

According to the Camp Commandant, Builder 1st Class (SCW) John Taylor, the design and flexibility of camp has exceeded their expectations.

“We had originally designed this camp to hold about 80 people - that’s living and working spaces - but we really flexed the capability," Taylor said. "Right now, we’re berthing 80 people, and at the other half of the camp in Rockhampton, we’re working 50 people.”

Of more interest to the Sailors on the ground are the creature comforts the camp provides.

“One of the real advantages of this concept is our ability to incorporate a number of services that we weren’t able to have in the past, like containerized showers, latrines and laundry services," Taylor said. "Those things fit real well in our package. Because of the way it’s designed, we’re able to fit a lot of tents and equipment into a small package.”

The camp not only provides personal services amenities, but also enough specialized equipment to keep the divers from U.S. Navy Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1, U.S. Army 7th Engineer Detachment Dive and Australian Navy Clearance Diving Team 4 fully operational.

Sixty miles away, at Camp Rocky, EOD Group 1 staff man spaces brimming with command and control communication equipment. With it, they’re in constant contact with Combined Force Maritime Component Commanders aboard USS Boxer (LHD 4), receiving mission tasking and relaying those tasks on to the joint/combined dive teams in Gladstone, and at the same time, maintaining command and control of EOD Mobile Unit detachments operating in the field 60 miles to the north at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area.

Even though the three operating areas are 120 miles apart, this prototype Tactical Operations Center, engineered in-house for EOD Group 1, is fully capable of directing operations for all the teams.

According to Capt. Marvin H. Heinze, commodore, EOD Group 1, the importance of a forward-deployed tactical communications center is vital to EOD‘s ever-growing role in the current state of global affairs.

“We need to have a robust command and control capability in order to integrate EOD forces with both ashore and maritime force commanders to support all aspects of the global war on terrorism, particularly in regards to our mission in defeating improvised explosive devices,” Heinze said.

Talisman Saber is an exercise jointly sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command and Australian Defense Force Joint Operations Command, designed to train the U.S. 7th Fleet commander's staff and Australian Joint Operations staff as a designated Combined Task Force headquarters. The exercise focuses on crisis action planning and execution of contingency response operations.

U.S. Pacific Command units and Australian forces will conduct land, sea and air training throughout the training area. More than 11,000 U.S. and 6,000 Australian personnel are participating in the exercise.