PETERSBURG, Va. — Ever wondered how explosive devices are handled and destroyed? The students in Fort Lee's Explosive Ordnance Disposal course, part of the post's Ordnance School, learn how to safely identify and dispose of explosive devices in a highly challenging course.
The students do not handle real explosive devices, but they are equipped with the basic knowledge of explosives in the introductory course at Fort Lee that prepares them for advanced training. After students successfully complete phase one, they are then transferred to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida for additional training.
Once students complete the second portion of the training, they can then join EOD units across the country and world. The EOD supports missions for the U.S. Secret Service, State Department and other federal agencies.
"EOD is really the go-to people for anybody in the Army and of course it's an all services deal, (serving)Marines, Navy, Air Force, everybody's got EOD," said Sgt. First Class Craig Cohen, instructor of the phase one EOD course. "So if you have an explosive, on the battlefield, stateside, wherever it may be, we're the people to call for it (for) any kind of explosive."
Fort Lee's EOD training is seven and a half weeks long and students are evaluated in a variety of ways, including written tests, hands-on tests and at the end a combination of both. The course is split up into eight modules, from A to H.
"For this course we have to consider everybody at a zero-level base knowledge so we have to start from the ground up, we have to build some sort of foundation of basic terms, some history, some basic tools and generally the basics of what we do so realistically, this is just the building block of the foundation of the actual job itself," Cohen said.
The students are issued iPads and are provided with training aids such as identification guides and videos.
For hands-on testing, Cohen said in module B, students must assemble an explosive charge from the point of initiation — the safe area — to the point of detonation, which is at a simulated distance away.
The EOD course has a 50 percent failure rate, one of the highest among military occupational specialties.
"It really is difficult," Cohen said. "Ninety-nine percent of the people are going to have no idea what they're dealing with so you have to, through testing and the ISAP (Student Assessment Plan), we have to determine who has the best chance at finishing the school completely all the way through Eglin."
Cohen said while most military training schools require a minimum passage score of 70 percent, the EOD program requires 85 percent.
"It really takes a bright individual to make it," he said.
2nd Lt. Sean Swistara, 25, and military specialist Steven Calisti, 28, started the EOD course at Fort Lee five weeks ago. Both are National Guardsmen from the Detroit area who served in the same unit together. Swistara and Calisti both plan to attend the second phase of EOD at Eglin.
Both men used to be combat engineers before joining the EOD program.
Calisti and Swistara said the EOD course is not for everyone.
"It's extremely challenging. We started the course with 33 people and right now we are down to 21, I believe. The class that's behind us started with roughly the same amount and I believe they're down to 12," he said. "Statistically, this is one of the hardest schools in the military to go through."
Calisti said what makes the course difficult is the amount of memorization that is required. However, the students are not responsible for memorizing every type of explosive, as there are "thousands, if not tens of thousands," according to Cohen. Calisti said the main memorization is of general terms, EOD history and explosive identification.
"There's a lot of memorization and not only memorizing, but being able to recall it when you're put into a practical exercise and you have to actually identify a piece of ordnance sitting in front of you," Calisti said. "It's just a lot of studying, honestly. You have to really want to be here."
Despite the challenges, Swistara said the class is a tight-knit group, which makes it enjoyable. He was attracted to the job because of the fact that every day would be different.
"Basically everything here is problem solving, it's like giant puzzles, so it's kind of like taking brain teasers every day at work, so it's always interesting," Swistara said. "I really like (learning) how everything works and being able to diagnose and all that kind of stuff."
Safety is the number one priority in the EOD classroom.
"The big thing we're trained on here, as well as in Florida, is how to safely approach and identify an ordnance as well as how to render it safe so that we can eventually dispose of it and make sure all the threat goes away," Swistara said.
The class teaches students the importance of ensuring safety and minimizing property damage. Swistara said students in the class learn how to make fast decisions.
"The entire program revolves around safety, so how to in an adrenaline situation, where you're on the clock and something needs to be taken care of, how to stay calm and be able to take whatever means necessary to get the job done," he said.
To destroy an explosive, Cohen said, "Generally we counter-charge. So we bring our own explosives, C4 is what we generally use, and we destroy by explosion . so we have control at that point and that's really the safest bet."
Both Swistara and Calisti have past military experience with explosives.
"In our previous MOS we actually worked with explosives, but it was more along the lines of placement and use, now it's more on how it does this, why it does this and how to actually make it safe, so it expands on what we knew and it's just interesting," Calisti said.
Once Swistara and Calisti graduate from the EOD program at Eglin, both plan to work in the National Guardpart-time while working other civilian jobs. Swistara works as an engineer in the auto industry and plans to perform EOD duties at Camp Grayling, a northern Michigan unit. Calisti used to work in food service delivery and sales, but he now wants to get into EOD contracting.
"As an EOD tech, there's lots of opportunities to go out of state and find work, and it pays quite well," Calisti said.
