Does your training reference Northern Ireland in any way, or have terrorists moved much further on since then?
Arent you a DOD Civilian out of Vicenza? Or do I have you confused with someone else?
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While I’m in school, and out serving in the position, I get $150 “Demolition Pay.” Everybody does, and this is regardless of rank/time in service. It also goes to certain other jobs in the military who handle explosives but are not EOD–think Combat Engineers. There’s talk of the Air Force throwing even more money at EOD troops as a ‘Special Duty Pay’ in an effort to retain them more. I don’t know what this will be since I think it’s still a “95% true rumor”.
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Don’t know just yet. There’s a lot of pure engineering jobs out there that need explosives experience. My wife and I are even talking about opening up a demolition company ourselves–kinda like those guys that bring down old corn silos with a few charges. The world will be my oyster upon graduation and my tour. Although I do intend to stay Air Force Reserves until retirement age if I decide to seperate from active duty.
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Current (or ‘previous’) AFSC (we don’t call 'em MOS): 32E3E. New AFSC: 32E3H.
I don’t watch the TV. I do like them “talkies” they got in the theater downtown though.
I didn’t see Grey’s anatomy, but from my meager experience (and handling a sh*tload of C-4 this week), I can see that Hollywood uses a lot of, :ahem: “dramatic license”. This does not mean that explosives are not volatile. All of the primary/initiating explosives (such as mercury fulminate, lead azide, etc.) are holy-hella sensitive, but are used in minute quantities to set off a booster charge. The secondary explosives, such as PETN, TNT, etc. are used as boosters, which are more sensitive, but not used in greater quantities. The main explosives are usually the most stable and sensitive, and are used as the ‘filler’ charges in most bombs. The fusing of ordinance puts all these together to function as a seamless train when you want it to work. Otherwise, you keep the primary initiators away from the main charges. It would be a bad day if you had fused bombs being shipped across the ocean, and one guy tickled a fuse just the wrong way on the boat.
This does not mean that explosives are not sensitive. I’ll talk about that more later. . . (I’ve got a breakfast date with my wife right now.)
Our training hasn’t focused on Northern Ireland yet, but I suspect it will in the future–the British, IMHO, are the kings of EOD. After dealing with the Buzz Bombs and other Nazi Nasties of WWII, and then the IRA, they’ve definitely got the most experience of anyone. We Yankees, just haven’t had that exposure yet, but we’re getting it mostly from the terrorists and Iraq/Afghanistan campaigns. It’s still light years from the Brits tho. But to answer your question–no, not yet. I suspect it will. One instructor had a 5 minute anecdote, but that was the only one in nigh on one and a half months of training.
Tripler
Quoth Sarah Palin, “I’ll have to get back to you. . .” I’m gonna go hang with the greatest support system of all: my lady.
Respect mate
Good luck .
Yes, that’s me. Ordinarily I’m in Vicenza supporting the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. Last year this was in Jalalabad, Afghanistan through February of this year. When they are home in Vicenza, not much happens so it was off to Republic of Georgia in July for a month and now 6 months in Iraq - to next March.
I have probably one more deployment in me before retirement and that will again be with the 173rd, sometime in 2009.
I’ll be in Vicenza around that time. I’ll buy you a beer.
Tripler, have you made one of these yet? He’s my new snowman. He and I are gonna have a blast this week!!!
Actually, I did one better: we took a Bangalore Torpedo kit and fashioned a Christmas Tree out of three sections. I made a few “ornaments” not unlike yer little snowman there. A helluvalotta detcord, some quad knots, and a few wraps of electrical tape, and our little Christmas in September was quite a blast.
Tripler
So there. Neener.