Mounting casualties make EOD a hard sell

Mounting casualties make EOD a hard sell
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, June 1, 2008

It’s difficult to put a price tag on the intangibles that make explosive ordnance disposal an undesirable career field: the stress of frequent deployments, of close calls on the job, and of losing a large number of colleagues.

"How can you convince a young guy who thinks, ‘This is just not worth it, that I don’t care how cool the job is, I’m going to come back in a coffin or without a limb’  " to stay in the service, asked Chief Petty Officer Jason Kennedy, the leading chief petty officer of the EOD Japan detachment at Yokosuka Naval Base.

EOD casualties are piling up. Since 2006, the Air Force has lost eight airmen in Iraq, according to Chief Master Sgt. Robert Hodges, the Air Force’s EOD career field manager. Thirty-five EOD airmen have received Purple Hearts, given to military members wounded or killed in combat. Five have lost limbs to roadside bombs.

The Navy has lost 11 EOD personnel in Iraq.

And the Marines have lost 12 in the war, according to Capt. Blanca Binstock, a Marine Corps spokeswoman at the Pentagon.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55223