Lighting the Fuse
EOD techs work with the Belize military during Southern Partnership 2014
25 July 2014
Navy explosive ordnance disposal technicians from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 3 conducted a joint demolition training evolution with members of the Belize military as part of Southern Partnership Station 2014.
Southern Partnership Station is a deployment that sends U.S. Navy subject matter experts to countries in Central and South America to work and train alongside local subject matter experts. For the demolition evolution, the technicians from EODMU 3 were working with soldiers and sailors from the Belize Defense Force and the Belize Coast Guard.
"We've got three different groups represented here today," said Lt. Mike Slagh, assigned to EODMU 3. "We're focusing on demolition initiation techniques, and how to be safe when we're doing that."
The group used small amounts of explosives and focused on different ways to detonate the explosives.
"There's risk, but we're doing everything we can to mitigate that risk and make it as safe as possible," said Slagh. "We're fortunate on my team to have four demolition operations supervisors, so we've got them all out today."
Over the past six weeks in Belize, the EODMU 3 team has worked with eight different partner nation forces. Now they are preparing to move on to the next stop on the Southern Partnership Station deployment: Guatemala.
"We've been busy," said Slagh. "It's a fast-paced environment, but everyone has been enjoying themselves a lot throughout the deployment ... moving on to Guatemala soon."
Southern Partnership Station 2014 is a U.S. Navy deployment focused on subject matter expert exchanges with partner nation militaries and security forces in Central and South America and the Caribbean. U.S. military teams work with partner nation forces during naval-focused training exercises, military-to-military engagements and community relations projects in an effort to enhance partnerships with regional maritime activities and improve the operational readiness of participants.