• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 12 Gets New Commanding Officer

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090813-09
Release Date: 8/13/2009 4:48:00 PM

By Ensign Benjamin Bear, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 12 Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 12 held a change of command ceremony at the Snug Harbor Officers Club, Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek July 30.

Cmdr. Christopher Merwin relieved Cmdr. Joseph Polanin as commanding officer.

Merwin reports to EODMU 12 from the Joint Staff, deputy directorate for Anti-terrorism and Homeland Defense at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He is a native of Pensacola, Fla., and was commissioned in 1991 through the Reserve Officers Training Corps program at the University of South Carolina.

Polanin, who assumed duties as the first commanding officer of EODMU 12 at the unit's commissioning in January 2008, will deploy to Afghanistan as the deputy commander of the U.S. military's counter-improvised explosive device (IED) task force, Joint Task Force Paladin. He is a native of Carteret, N.J., and was commissioned in 1990 at the United States Naval Academy.

EODMU 12 was the first EOD mobile unit created specifically with the necessary command and control structure to deploy as a cohesive unit. In November 2008, the unit's Sailors returned from a five-month operational deployment, during which they provided operational control for Navy EOD and expeditionary diving forces operating at various locations in the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility. EODMU 12 Sailors are currently conducting training in preparation for a deployment to Iraq later this year.

For more news from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/necc/.