A remote-operated robotic bomb defuser picks up a rocket during Iraqi military explosive ordinance training at Lions military camp in Anbar province August 27, 2008. REUTERS/Mohanned Faisal (IRAQ) Demand For Military Bomb Techs At All-Time High -- Yahoo News/AP
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Many things have gone wrong for Navy Senior Chief Tommy Gura while disarming nearly 200 improvised explosive devices in Iraq. He's been shot at and targeted for mortar attacks. His robots have blown up and he's lost communication to call for backup.
But the veteran instructor at the military's explosive ordnance disposal school tells his young students to be confident in the chaos. Bombs hidden along the roadside and elsewhere remain the top threat to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, accounting for about a third of all deaths, and it will be the trainees' job to defuse them.
"If something goes wrong and you pout or get upset and people see it, then they are going to be uncomfortable," Gura tells his students. "You are the calming influence."
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My Comment: Not my idea of an ideal job .... but thank God there are soldiers who are willing to do it.