Excuse my intrusion, but as this pertains to Navy EOD and interoperability, I thought I might add my 2 cents. I have worked both the SOF and NSW missions, as well as many of the other EOD missions out there.
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Originally Posted by afire87
As far as making it to a team, it's "cast or tab" for me. I am giving up a good civilian job and time with my girl, so once I go into the military its full-speed ahead.
As far as UXO and support, from my understanding (however flawed it may be), Navy EOD is the only SOF-deployable EOD unit and work often with Seals, CAG and Devgru. I could be wrong, but I have been told that in these situations, you are a team member with a rifle first, until an EOD situation presents itself. I do not want to play with robots for my career, but I have been told this is not the case. Does anyone's deployment experience contradict this?
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afire87, You need to figure out what it is you want to do. What you have been told is partially true, and I imagine, partially what you want to hear.
First and foremost, EOD Techs are bomb guys. From start to finish that is what we do. Doesn't matter whether it is using a robot, on a DA mission or diving on sea mines.
All services have EOD and all have, to a greater or lesser extent worked with SOF units in addition to what we do on our own. Navy EOD is utilized more heavily. There are a number of reasons for this I won't go into. We are not the only service to do these types of missions, nor are we mandated to be the only service to do them. Some of the units you mentioned do not have Navy EOD attached except on an as needed basis. Some have their own service EOD. The other services are stepping up their SOF interoperability roles because there is good
EOD work to be had.
Do not look at EOD as an easy way into a SOF role. EOD School, and particularly the Navy EOD pipeline is long and difficult. If you make it through the initial year plus of training you will more than likely complete at least one tour doing conventional EOD missions such as Route Clearance, IED response or Mine Countermeasures. At some point you may be selected for a SOF/NSW team. If you are, they are relying on you to be a first rate bomb guy. The fact that we can be utilizied in other roles is a testament to the caliber of Sailors in our program and the level of trust our SF/NSW teammates place in us. Also, unless you go to specific units, once a SOF/NSW tour is completed you will more than likely return to a conventional EOD team. THis is because we are EOD Techs doing an EOD mission.
Finally, you mention not wanting to be a robot driver. Of the roughly 70 EOD Techs that have been killed (all services), only one was killed doing a DA mission. Without those robots, the #'s would be much higher. EOD work is unforgiving.