A U.S. convoy carrying supplies bound for Mosul is just six miles outside of Baghdad when the lead driver spots a suspicious car on the side of the road about 200 meters ahead. Is it just another abandoned vehicle — or something more sinister? The driver has seen the aftermath of enough car bombs to know not to risk it, so he brings the 10-vehicle caravan to a halt and calls back to base.

Ten minutes later, an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team arrives on the scene. The area around the convoy already has been secured and several soldiers stand sentry, scanning nearby dunes for secondary threats such as snipers. Three bomb techs discuss the situation for a moment, then the team leader opts for the easiest solution to a problem like this — blow it up where it lies.

A remote-controlled robot is unloaded from a truck and guided toward the abandoned car, where it deposits a hefty package of C-4 explosives. Once the robot has safely returned, the EOD team leader presses the ignition switch on a handheld remote, and the C-4 goes boom. Almost simultaneously, a second explosion rocks the area. As suspected, insurgents had placed a bomb in the car’s trunk.

Explosive ordnance disposal is perhaps the most dangerous MOS in the military — as of this writing, 12 Army EOD soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 10 of them by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). However, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps personnel who volunteer for EOD tend not to dwell on the danger that is inherent in their calling. To them, ordnance disposal is an interesting and often exciting job that saves many lives.

Because of the high risk involved with EOD, all bomb techs are volunteers. Training is physically and mentally challenging, and not everyone who applies graduates. “EOD is generally one of the more difficult schools in the military,” confirms Command Sgt. Maj. James H. Clifford of the 52nd Ordnance Group (EOD) at Fort Gillem, Ga. “Currently, we run about a 25-percent attrition rate.”

Although explosive ordnance has been a part of warfare for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until World War II that the U.S. military began training technicians specifically to disarm and dispose of explosive devices, notes Clifford.

The impetus for such training was the Battle of Britain in 1940, during which many British civilians were killed or wounded by German delayed-fuse bombs. The first British bomb techs were volunteer engineers, many of whom were killed or wounded trying to defuse enemy ordnance. Realizing the need for skilled specialists, the British began formal bomb disposal training in September 1941.

Four months later, the U.S. military formed the Bomb Disposal School at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., under Lt. Col. Thomas Kane, USA, who is considered the father of U.S. EOD. Kane, another officer, and two enlisted soldiers immediately went to England to learn the art of bomb disposal from the British. At the same time, the English army sent a team led by Col. Jeffrey Yates to Aberdeen to begin instructing U.S. soldiers.

“EOD started out as small bomb-disposal squads and has evolved into companies that still are not much bigger than they were in World War II,” notes Clifford. “We remain small, close-knit organizations with a specialized mission.”

Today, there are a combined 4,000 EOD specialists in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. However, DoD has initiated a program to dramatically increase that number because of the growing need for trained bomb techs at home and abroad. Unlike most military personnel, who see action only during wartime, EOD specialists have peacetime and wartime missions. “The EOD soldier supports the ongoing missions in Iraq and Afghanistan by getting rid of hazardous items that threaten the military, coalition force, and civilian populations in those areas,” says Clifford.

They do this in a variety of ways, adds Sgt. 1st Class John Gray, an EOD team leader with the U.S. Army 704th Ordnance Company (EOD) at Camp Shelby, Miss., who has been deployed to Iraq twice. One is by cleaning up ammo supply points in an effort to deny the enemy the munitions they need to make IEDs. Gray recalls one cleanup effort near Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, that recovered more than 30,000 pieces of ordnance, which the Army had learned were being smuggled out of the area and into the hands of insurgents.

The second way bomb techs support the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan is by taking care of IEDs — either by neutralizing them before they can cause harm or by performing a post-blast analysis. In many cases, the resulting information can be extremely beneficial to military intelligence.

“When our soldiers neutralize a device, the components are brought back to the Combined Exploitation Cell in Baghdad, which ships them back to the United States for forensic analysis,” explains Col. Paul R. Plemmons, deputy commander, U.S. Army 20th Support Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. “We’re able to get such things as DNA and biometrics off bomb components, and often technicians are able to look at a particular piece and detect a pattern. That information is then sent back to the war fighters in theater.”

Peacetime missions also are an integral part of the job. These missions include clearing military ranges of unexploded ordnance and disposing of ordnance in the possession of civilians. “The standard scenario is ‘grandfather was in World War II and has some kind of ordnance in a chest in the attic,’ so we’ll go out and dispose of it,” says Gray.

Most of the ordnance in civilian hands are souvenirs from World War II and Korea, Gray says, but EOD technicians have disposed of explosive devices dating to as far back as the Civil War and as recent as Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Assisting local law enforcement is another aspect of EOD’s peacetime mission, notes Clifford. If a community does not have its own bomb squad, the police or sheriff’s office often will call in the closest EOD unit to handle explosive devices, such as pipe bombs. “But whether they have their own bomb squad or not, local law enforcement will always call us if they run into military ordnance,” Clifford says.

And though most people don’t know it, EOD technicians also support the Secret Service and State Department when VIPs such as the president and vice president travel, a gig that requires top secret clearance. Similar protection also is provided to all presidential candidates during an election year.

What type of person would sign up for a job as dangerous as EOD? “We’re looking for smart, independent thinkers,” says Plemmons. “One might look at this job and think it requires a cowboy mentality, but that’s not the case. An individual must be pretty stable to do this job. Bomb techs must have confidence without being cocky, and they must also be great problem solvers.”

“Bomb techs must also like a challenge,” adds Clifford. “Someone who is easily intimidated by a situation or who gets overwhelmed by complexity wouldn’t do well.”

Sgt. Andrew Livingston, a bomb tech with the 704th EOD, is a recent graduate of EOD school who was deployed to Iraq just a month after completion. He started training at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, where he learned EOD terminology, basic demolition, reconnaissance, and other skills. From there, he was sent to Eglin AFB, Fla., where he learned everything from the tools of the trade to the remarkably diverse types of ordnance, including IEDs. He also received special biological and chemical training.

“The pace is a lot faster at Eglin, much more intense,” Livingston notes. “They expect a lot out of you in a short amount of time. You’re thrown tons of information one day, and the next day you’re expected to perform. Very few make it through without failing a phase and having to go back through the training.”

The requirements for entry into EOD training are strict. Applicants must score 105 or higher on the general mechanical category, be physically fit, and be free of color blindness. To test physical fitness, applicants must perform a variety of tasks while wearing a 70-pound Kevlar bomb suit. “It’s physically demanding, and after a while it becomes mentally demanding,” recalls Livingston, who spent 90 minutes in the suit to prove his fitness. “You have a face shield just inches from your nose, it feels like you’re breathing in the same air you just breathed out, and you have protective covers on your hands. You tend to lose IQ points the longer you stay in it.”

However, bomb suits are used infrequently in Iraq and Afghanistan, say EOD technicians who have been there. The vast majority of EOD work is accomplished using robots, which allow bomb techs to perform their duties from a safe distance. One time, however, Livingston had to suit up Gray, his team leader, so Gray could place an explosive charge beneath a vehicle-borne IED that could not be reached by robot. “John walked 500 meters in the suit, and by the time he came back, he was hurting,” says Livingston. “He was just drenched in sweat. It’s something that will take a toll on you very fast.”

The EOD missions in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom are similar, though bomb techs in Iraq tend to see far more IEDs than their colleagues in Afghanistan, observes Sgt. 1st Class Willie Snell, operations sergeant with the 704th EOD who, as a team leader, spent 212 days in Iraq. IEDs are perhaps the biggest threat facing EOD technicians in Iraq and Afghanistan, Snell says, and the enemy is becoming increasingly sophisticated at making and hiding them.

“They’ll place IEDs under some dirt, or drop a sand pile near the road and put them in there,” Snell says. “They’ll put bombs in trash, in tires, even inside dead animals. We handled several IEDs in Iraq that were actually pieces of curb. Anything on the side of the road can theoretically hide a bomb, and that makes driving very stressful.”

Staff Sgt. Daniel Wilson, a team leader with the 704th EOD who has seen duty in Bosnia and Iraq, understands the threat. He experienced partial amputations of his left index finger and thumb, severed tendons in his right wrist, shrapnel in his face, and the loss of hearing in his left eardrum when an IED exploded just 20 meters from him during a post-blast mission in Iraq. However, that experience has not turned him off EOD as a career. “When the adrenaline and the morphine began to wear off, I did start to question the job,” he says. “But I love EOD, and I’m not going to give up on it. I plan to continue once I’m ready.”

As long as nations wage war and bad guys make bombs, there will be plenty of work for military bomb techs, say those in charge. “I don’t think the mission of the EOD specialist is ever going to change,” states Clifford. “But we’re constantly improving on things like protective equipment and equipment we can use as remotely as possible. But no matter what we do, we have to keep in mind that at some point a soldier has to put himself in harm’s way. I don’t see a point where this will ever be a job with no hazards.”