Although Sailors have been performing explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) for decades, they did not have their own EOD rating until 2006, which in turn was the direct result of the enemy’s increased reliance on the use of Improvised Explosives, or IEDs, first in in Iraq and then in Afghanistan, in land-based combat.
The work of the Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom was focused almost exclusively on naval mines. Having taken a hard look at what happened during Operation Desert Storm, when two U.S. ships were heavily damaged by Iraqi mines in the Persian Gulf, the Navy was determined to avoid mine damage at all costs, and subsequently employed every type of technology at its disposal to assist EOD Sailors and others involving in mine-countermeasures. Using everything from mine-hunting dolphins to unmanned underwater vehicles, the Navy suffered no ship damage from Iraqi naval mines.
And while the U.S. military forces were fully aware that the Iraqi military employed traditional land mines, the introduction of IEDs posed an entirely new threat. Standard land mines are typically activated by the pressure of a vehicle rolling over it or a solider stepping on it. With the arrival of IEDs, however, the detonations were frequently controlled a remote observer using signals from common devices such as cell phones—a technique referred to as “command detonation.”
Beginning in 2004, the number of IED fatalities to coalition forces and others, especially as a percentage of all casualties, began to skyrocket. In 2005, the year before the Navy established the Explosive Ordnance Disposal rating, 20 were killed by IEDs; the next year more than doubled and by 2009 it accounted for 275 fatalities—almost 61 percent of all fatalities. (These figures are from icasaulties.org and include fatalities in any operation around the globe related to Operation Enduring Freedom and the Global War on Terror). The worst year was 2010, when 368 IED fatalities were recorded. In 2013, the
Washington Post tallied the number killed by IEDs at 2550, while the icasualties.org counts 2798 killed as of June, 2016.
Brian Castner, a former Air Force officer who headed an EOD unit in Iraq, summed up the situation when he described Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom as “the EOD’s war.” And as the role of Navy SEALs increased in response to the insurgents’ unconventional methods of warfare, the need for Sailors in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal rating also grew along with it. Today, the Navy is stepping up efforts not only to recruit new Sailors for the EOD rating, but also to retain as many veterans—and their invaluable first-hand experience—as possible.
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