EOD makes life less explosive in Kosovo
Story and photos by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Cody Harding 4th Public Affairs Detachment
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t could be a small piece of rusting metal, sticking up from the ground after a rainstorm or discovered by kicking over a rock while walking through a ?eld.
mentor and oversee the operation of the Kosovo Security Forces EOD. The 62nd Ordnance Company, from Fort Carson, Colo., is the EOD team lead for Multinational Battle Group – East. They respond to any reports of UXOs found throughout the battle group’s area of operations. According to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Whitney, an EOD team member for MNBG-E from Orange, Mass, their team receives anywhere from three to six calls on a weekly basis, with many of them being legitimate threats. Though the teams have only been in Kosovo for less than two months, they have already responded to more than 50 UXOs throughout Kosovo. “They’re being found in the ?elds when people farm,” Whitney said. “They’re being found near houses, in the ground. Some people have had them in houses, or in the
Kosovo bears the marks of these pieces of unexploded ordnance scattered throughout the country as a result of decades of con?ict from as early as World War II. Bombing campaigns, old military munitions and land mines, once dropped by the tonnage, are now turned to pieces of rust and buried, needing only the unsuspecting bystander or Mother Nature to unearth them again. Though old, they are no less destructive to their unsuspecting victims and property. These explosives represent a signi?cant threat, underlying the need for those trained in their identi?cation, removal and disposal. For that task, the NATO-led Kosovo Forces turn to Explosives Ordnance Disposal teams to help train,
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