U.S. Airmen, Italian soldiers form 'strong bonds' during training

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. R.J. Biermann
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  No matter their country or service, explosive ordnance disposal technicians respond to emergencies involving explosive materials, day and night, around the globe. On Feb. 26-27, that skillset was put to the test during the first-ever joint training between Italian and U.S. EOD technicians.

The service members, Team Aviano Airmen, and soldiers from Trento, Italy, teamed to share best practices in dynamic entry training into barricaded entryways.

"The 2nd Italian Alpine Combat Engineer/EOD Regiment [assigned to Brigata Alpina Julia] was recently tasked with incorporating dynamic entry into a new breaching program," said Capt. Jeffrey Ledoux II, 31st Civil Engineer Squadron EOD flight commander. "We were invited to observe a breaching operation being conducted in northern Friuli in January. We thought if we hosted a class it would help dramatically reduce the learning curve associated with developing a breaching program from the ground up."

According to Ledoux, dynamic entry is an extremely important aspect of irregular warfare. It facilitates an assault team's goal of speed and surprise while minimizing casualties.

During the first day of training, Airmen provided instruction on dynamic entry tactics, building and placing charges and how to calculate minimum safe distances for each charge.

"[We're] trying to show them how to build charges with the minimum amount of explosives; so they can get right up on the doors, be real close, but safe and effective at the same time, " said Senior Airman Joseph Schmidt, 31st CES EOD technician.

The group practiced building eight charges. On day two, these small explosive objects, most no more than a small shoe box in size, were fastened to plywood doors at the EOD range and detonated.

"We are dedicated [to] using explosives in military activities in theater and to identify remnants of war," said Italian army Capt. Matteo Boschian Bailo, 2nd ACR operations and training officer. "Some of our guys are here following this lesson and have a good information sharing activity with the U.S. EOD. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to have a good joint collaboration with them."

According to Schmidt, there were few obstacles faced during the training.

"It's a little hard with the language barrier; but it's been really good," Schmidt said. "[We covered] a lot of the basics and some of the more advanced stuff. It's been kind of cool to see how they do things rather than the one way we do it all the time. We never get to really see another way to do it."

Despite the initial obstacles, Schmidt says the two units will soon partner again - for open field tactics training.