The facility at Eglin Air Force Base strives to make advanced training feel real.
By Associated Press
Published December 18, 2005
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - With more American soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan from hidden bombs, the military hopes a new advanced explosives school will help troops to detect and disarm the deadly devices.
The military showed off X-ray cameras, chemical sensors and advanced robotics Friday, while the military's top bomb-disposal instructors demonstrated some of the latest techniques in combating deadly improvised explosive devices.
The new Advanced Explosives Device Disposal School at Eglin Air Force Base officially opens next month. Explosives experts from all military branches will attend the specialized training.
Because many of the instructors will return to combat soon, the military required they be identified only by their service branch and military rank.
The school, which offers advanced training for leaders of explosives disposal teams, is unique because it includes a replica of a town in which soldiers practice locating and disarming bombs.
At the school's fake airport, a soldier in a 75-pound bomb disposal suit used an upright motorized scooter to travel from an equipment van to the building. Once inside, he used a portable X-ray camera to take a picture of a bomb at a security checkpoint. He wheeled back out, and conferred with other team members about disarming the bomb. The X-ray picture quickly provided a detailed view of the small canister and the wires contained within.
Soldiers said the airport is especially important because of domestic terrorist threats. The realistic feel of the building helps heighten his students' senses, an instructor said.
"We want there to be as much realism as we can give them," he said.
The town also includes a bank, a school, a newspaper office, a farmhouse and a gas station.
An Army sergeant using a robot to remove a backpack from a library table said the authentic feel of the training buildings is especially important.
"The hardest thing when you get out there in the world is everything around you," he said. "The biggest problem at an incident site isn't the device, we know how to deal with that, it's everything else."
The library includes shelves of books, reading tables and a checkout counter.
The sergeant said his bomb disposal missions in Iraq often involved situations like the one acted out at the library on Friday. In Iraq, removing bombs without damaging buildings was just as important as saving lives because damage could also constitute a victory for terrorists, he said.
A second team member communicated with the soldier in the library from an equipment van outside and looked at pictures transmitted by the robot. In a real situation, the team could have disarmed without having to go inside the building.
"We always prefer to use robots first because we can protect lives," one team member said.
The nine instructors at the school include three from the Army, three from the Air Force, two from the Navy and one Marine. Each class lasts three weeks. Navy Lt. Dave Blauser, the officer in charge of the school, said his instructors are among the most highly trained bomb technicians in the military.
As the number of troops killed by improvised explosive devices climbs, the military's Joint IED Taskforce, which includes the school, is constantly looking at ways to counter the threat by training how to detect and avoid the devices, Blauser said.
Despite the advances, average soldiers on the ground in Iraq can do little to avoid the devices, said a Navy petty officer who is an instructor at the school.
"We are trying to keep people alive here and trying to mitigate all of the dying," he said.
