EOD team clear the way for Helmand patrols

The main objective of Joint Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team (JFEOD) is to provide Force Protection, mobility and search support to the UK Task Force in southern Afghanistan:

"Everything that goes on in Helmand requires our support – we're the first on the ground clearing the route," explains Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Darren Gathercall who oversees all JFEOD activity.

The JFEOD Team at Camp Bastion consists of 61 personnel from 33 Engineer Regiment, 36 Engineer Regiment, and 11 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps. These personnel make up 3 unique teams within JFEOD; Conventional Munitions Disposal (CMD), a High Risk Search Team and an Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) Team.

The teams are usually alerted to a situation on the ground through the receipt of a '10-liner' back in their Operations room at Camp Bastion. This is literally 10 lines of details of either a mine, improvised device or unexploded ordnance. An assessment is then carried out on the type of threat and the relevant team is tasked with its clearance or controlled detonation.

The CMD team deploy with an immediate response team by Chinook and often find themselves dropped off at the designated location and left with the unit on the ground to receive further tasking.

Due to the advanced nature of their equipment, the four man IEDD team are able to expend a device through the use of a camera and zoom by the remote means of a Wheelbarrow. The Wheelbarrow is controlled by Corporal Alan Hine from inside the Citizen, a purposely designed vehicle with added protection.

The Wheelbarrow is fitted with a shotgun providing an accurate range from a standoff point. It can also travel ahead of the convoy through urban areas which is ideal when working in compounds. JFEOD will always try to work by remote means where and when possible.

Corporal Hine explains how during a recent operation he worked with a unit for 20 days:

"Out on the ground we're a real asset to those we're working with; an asset they can always use – I believe we are almost like a safety blanket for the unit, they feel a real reassurance when we're around – it's a sense of achievement for us when we clear an area and make it safe for the troops and in return they accommodate us really well."

The Commander of the IEDD team, Staff Sergeant Lee Grice from Chester, is an Ammo Technicians Officer. He makes the overall decisions about how to deal with a device and how to render it safely. When asked how he copes with these potentially highly dangerous situations on almost a daily basis, he explains:

"When I go forward to the device, my training just kicks in and I do what I've go to do – it's only usually on my journey out of the location that it crosses my mind how close I was to a live device."

The easy bit of the job can often be the rendering of the device itself – the environment is the real challenge and the fact that the teams are usually operating in vulnerable areas.

The High Risk Search Team is led by a Royal Engineer Search Advisor (RESA), Sergeant Alistair Dunnett. The team conduct route searches and isolate the device as necessary when alerted by a call sign on the ground.

The High Risk Search Team operates the Vallon. Recently new to operations, this metal detector is used extensively and has proven to be a robust and reliable piece of equipment.

All units on the ground are able to carry out their own searches in a suspect area. However, the High Risk Search Team is called into a particularly troublesome area to execute their specialist skills once the unit on the ground have provided a cordon and close protection for them:

"Most of the devices that have been found out here have some sort of metal content," says Sergeant Dunnett. "The Vallon has been ideal to work with, its different functions mean that we don't miss a thing and its extra sensitivity picks up even the smallest of metal fragments."

Sergeant Dunnett referred to a specific incident just recently in the Kajaki Dam area where the team had to carry out a High Risk Search throughout the night:

"A 'live' device had been partially detonated and we were required to identify its whereabouts so that the area could be made safe for C Company 40 Commando Royal Marines to use as a firebase. We carried out a search of over 12 compounds and were out on patrol from nine at night to five thirty the following morning.

"Our training and confidence in the equipment really came into play that night. We'd been told that the threat was too high to carry out the search in the day, so we knew what we were up against, but thankfully we found the device and made the area safe – it was the toughest job we've done so far."

Once the Search Team find the device they mark it off and handover to the Bomb Disposal Officer who detonates the device. Lieutenant Adam Rollinson, the Bomb Disposal Officer from the Conventional Munitions Disposal team, explains:

"This is a drill for me – we have procedures and methods that keep us safe. To the untrained eye a mine would seem a very dangerous item but to me, if I know where a mine is, it actually requires action on my part to make it function – it's not going to detonate by itself.

"So as long as I know what my actions are in relation to that mine, then it would take something major for me to get it wrong."

JFEOD also carry out training for units new into the Helmand region and provide a thorough brief on the current threat state, types of munitions they could come across and ways to identify vulnerable points.

As WO2 Gathercall summarises:

"EOD is a big part of the whole picture out here – the small arms used by the enemy forces against us is not that effective because our infantry soldiers are better than them - so they try to hit us with explosive devices and wherever there are coalition forces there will always be a high risk of some sort of explosive device. The guys on the ground can't really move unless they have support from us and that's our main effort out here; to provide support to the whole of Task Force Helmand."