The Road to US EOD Operator
We have been reaching out to to current and past service men and woman to ask them to provide stories and information on how they got to where they wanted to be. We know information is power and we want to give our community the power to achieve the careers goals they have set. We have a US Army EOD operator helping you all out this week! Read on!
The Decision
I started my career as an 88M (truck driver) in 2006. Not a bad job and had a lot of friends. Then I started losing some of those friends. I was angry and wanted to make a difference. EOD was the clear choice to me. But it’s not that simple. Being a tech is not meant for everyone, I’ve had operators from every branch tell me I was bat-shit crazy. But it’s not, very few are crazy. It’s the decision to take that long walk because if I don’t, who will? In school an instructor once told me “you’ll never know how many lives you save, but you’ll always remember the ones you don’t”.
Get There
So this is what you want to do? You want to put on a 100 pound suit of Kevlar and walk up to something designed to blow up a truck? Alright let’s do it.
Volunteer - all techs have to sign a form stating that they volunteer. You can pull it at any time even after graduating.
Interview - we are not looking for crazies or adrenaline junkies. You have to be smart and driven.
Train - the school is hard, mentally and physically. Bomb suits are heavy. You carry explosives on top of what everyone else is carrying.
OJT - if you are active find your local EOD company and ask to work with them.
Clearance - make sure your personal life is in order. You are going to be getting a TS-SCI and it takes time.
School - this is obviously the hard part. There are no late night study sessions, all of your course material is classified which means you study at school and that’s it.
Mental - this is the big part of being a tech. You need to be in the right mental place. People will literally trust you with their lives more so than almost any other job. People die in EOD. Our motto is “Initial Success or total failure” if you have any doubts look up the EOD Memorial or the EOD Wounded Warrior Foundation. Those exist for a reason.
Enjoy The Process
Have fun. You will get to do some amazing things with amazing people. I’ve worked with everything from route clearance patrols to seal teams and ODAs to the secret service and CIA. You will get amazing stories that you’ll never get to tell.
END OF GUEST BLOGGER
EOD operators are a great asset on the battle field and they do one hell of a job. The beautiful thing about the military is you have so many options, you just have to believe in yourself and your ability to go after the higher end jobs, trust me, If I can do it so can you.
The operator who submitted the blog wishes to remain anonymous, thank you for your story brother!
What other units would you like information on joining?
If you need help physically and mentally preparing click here!
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