|
"Back at the Gap"
Major General Frank H. Smoker,
Jr. (USAF, Retired)
Bomb squad just one of
Gap’s ongoing functions
47th in a series
It has been said that the Gap is much
more than the sum of its parts. Indeed, there are many
varied activities going on at any one time.
One of the many unique missions is the
756th Ordinance Company, commonly referred to as the
756th Explosive Ordnance Detachment or EOD. EOD is a
little known unit with a very big and dangerous mission.
Under the command of Captain Jarrod Lampier, this small
unit of 18 technicians specializes in deactivating
explosive devices of all dimensions, everything from a
small letter-bomb to a massive car bomb.
These highly trained EOD personnel are
on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and have
responsibility for a large area, including all of
Pennsylvania and some New Jersey counties bordering
Pennsylvania. Each EOD member has a top-secret clearance
as well as a special-access pass since they work with
Secret Service and support the White House and Camp
David. Their mission also includes attaching teams to
travel with the president and vice-president when
required.
Periodically, White House teams come
to the Gap to practice setting up remote communication
sites and this involves EOD personnel as well. The EOD
team is routinely called to locations within its
territory when a bomb threat is suspected. Such
incidents have occurred in Lebanon from time to time.
The EOD team uses a wide variety of
special equipment, such as bomb suits similar to the
flak vests for body armor worn by soldiers in Iraq.
However, each EOD bomb suit is specially constructed and
weighs 80 pounds. As a comparison, when I was in the
Eighth Air Force flying combat missions over German
during World War II, the flak vests we wore each weighed
40 pounds. We thought they were heavy but, as a personal
note, one of those flack vests saved my life when a
piece of 88 mm flak tore through the side of my B-17 and
hit me.
EOD also has a specially designed,
remote-controlled safety robot. This is a small, tracked
vehicle equipped with lights, a television camera and
remote controlled arms that can safely pick up or move a
suspected bomb. A new storage building for the 756th EOD
was completed earlier this year. It will provide needed
space for organizational equipment such as the robot.
Members of EOD are routinely kept
abreast of terrorist activities both at home and abroad
and receive specific training for dealing with bombs
manufactured by terrorists. It is essential for the
teams to be very suspicious of a situation dealing with
a bomb believed to have connections to a terrorist.
One of the EOD members said,
“Terrorists are more sophisticated and better trained
than your average ‘basement bomber’. Also, the
likelihood of booby traps and other difficulties are
common with terrorist bombs.”
The eight different Army and Air Guard
schools going on at the Gap cover a wide spectrum of
activities.
There are eight Air Guard units
stationed at the Gap. Each of these units has its own
unit training in progress, and, in addition, the Air
Guard operates three special training activities.
The Bollen air-to-ground range, one of
only 15 ranges in the entire United States, provides an
important environment for military organizations to
conduct live tactical training that includes
air-to-ground weapons delivery and joint training in
conjunction with Army National Guard training.
The range primarily provides training
to 27 military flying organizations including the Air
Guard, Air Force, Army and Marines. These organizations
are based in 13 different states, mostly in northeast
United States. It’s a very busy range, averaging of over
2,500 sorties per year.
The 211th Engineering Installation
Squadron has operated the Lightning Force Academy since
1994. LFA’s primary customer base is the 19 Air Guard
engineering and installation units located throughout
the country. It provides joint training for active-duty
Air Force, Air Force Reserve, civilian and military
personnel from all branches of the armed forces and
trains an average of 550 students each year.
The schoolhouse is dedicated to
professionalism and prepares engineering and
installation and prepares war fighters to perform the
communications networks installation that aid in the
successful total-force operations in any theater of
operations.
LFT’s curriculum includes specialized
electronics courses such as fiber optics, local area
networks, project engineering and computer assisted
drafting and design (CADD). The Community College of the
Air Force certifies the course curricula and awards
college credits toward a degree in electronic science.
Another important Air Guard
schoolhouse is the Regional Equipment Operator Training
Site (REOTS), managed and operated by the 201st Red
Horse Squadron. It is the only one of its kind in the
armed forces.
Since October 1989, REOTS has provided
intensive war-skills training for equipment operators on
four main pieces of Airfield Damage Repair construction
equipment: the grader, bulldozer, excavator and
front-end loader. The schoolhouse offers 40 training
sessions per year with a course length of 47 hours and a
maximum class size of 16 students. Nearly 90% of course
time is devoted to hands-on training.
REOTS is a total force schoolhouse
with 50% of its students from the Air National Guard,
25% from the Air Force Reserve and 25% from the Active
Duty Air Force.
As a Regional Training Site, its
mission is to provide training to upgrade proficiency
levels, to enhance war-skills training and to provide
certification for all civil engineering construction
trades, placing emphasis on bare base bed-down
operations and air base operations.
In accomplishing training, specialized
equipment is used that is not available at most home
stations. Mission essential readiness training is
provided that cannot be obtained on home station because
of the complexity of the task, uniqueness of equipment
or cost of the Air Force-wide implementation.
To meet the need for equipment
operators to be trained and licensed to operate the
15-ton crane, the Mobile Crane Operations and Rigging
Considerations Course is conducted. This course is two
weeks (80 hours) with a minimum of eight students per
class and is 40 percent classroom and 60 percent
hands-on.
By the beginning of 2005, the training
site has trained over 20,000 personnel from all 50
states, including American military personnel from Guam,
Puerto Rico, Azores, Panama, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Foreign Special Forces students from Canada, England and
Norway also train at REOTS. The schoolhouse total
training assets exceed the $7 million mark. All
supplies, fuel and food are purchased from the local
economy.
As recently as July, 37 members of the
Royal Engineers of the 73rd Regiment, a Territorial unit
equivalent of our National Guard, spent two weeks as
part of an ongoing four-year exchange program aimed at
providing hands-on training with equipment such as
excavators and crawler tractors. The British trainees
received heavy equipment experience not normally
available at their home station.
The training was intensive, but the
Red Horse airmen provided warm hospitality for their
British comrades by arranging free time in the evenings
and weekends to experience the American way of life. The
British soldiers had the option to visit Washington, DC,
or New York City. The entire unit also took a trip to
Gettysburg National Military Park to learn a lesson
about American history.
Published in the Wednesday, August
24, 2005 edition of the Lebanon Daily News
©
2005 Frank H. Smoker, Jr. All rights reserved.
Reproduced by permission of the author.
 
Go "Back at
the Gap" Index |
