EOD has blast at Draughon Range

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Phillip Butterfield
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Explosive ordnance disposal technicians from the 35th Civil Engineer Squadron here detonated more than half a ton of munitions Aug. 7 at the Draughon Range.

EOD personnel, along with the range management team, cleansed the targets, roads and other work areas of bombs in an effort to salvage the used bomb bodies and remove potentially harmful debris from the environment.

EOD comes out here and clears the munitions off the range," said Master Sgt. Garet Vannes, 35th CES EOD flight chief. 

"If there are still explosive hazards, we will detonate the weapons to render it save for salvage," he said "The rest of the materials are just scrap, and they get recovered by the Draughon Range workers."

The cleanup process is not as simple as picking up the weapons and tossing them into a pile. The EOD technicians first probe the weapons to determine if their explosive cartridges have been expended or not.

"We will probe the back of the bomb to determine if the explosives have gone off or not," said Staff Sgt. Michael Overton, 35th CES EOD technician. "If the explosives have gone off, we will load up the scrap. If the probe shows us the explosives are still in the bomb, or we can't tell, we consider it to be potentially hazardous and prepare it for detonation." 

When dealing with explosives, safety is paramount not only in wartime but in training as well, added Sergeant Overton.

Everything EOD does has a safety aspect involved, Sergeant Vannes explained. 

In an effort to reduce risks, range cleanup operations with EOD are always accompanied by medical service professionals who are prepared to render aid if the need arises.

"The biggest hazard is the blasting caps used to detonate the C-4," said Staff Sgt. Phillip Snell, 35th Medical Operations Squadron urgent care shift leader. "We are about a 20-minute drive back to base, so having medical support out here is paramount. We have a jump bag that we carry with us, containing whatever we need to stabilize a person until we can get them back to base for further treatment."

The range cleanup is not just a salvage operation; it doubles as a training environment to help EOD prepare for deployment activities.

"A small part of what we do out here is for training our folks in explosive procedures and explosive operations," said Sergeant Vannes. "But there is a much bigger picture. The Misawa EOD team and the Japanese EOD work together to make sure the target is capable of being used by the pilots to maintain proficiency in combat operations."