Far from sea, Navy specialists defuse roadside bombs.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold

A growing number of the Navy's explosive ordnance disposal experts are being detailed to Army and Marine units in Iraq to help neutralize the improvised bombs and other unexploded ordnance that litter the landscape.

Traditionally, Navy EOD technicians specialize in clearing explosive hazards at sea, in ports and along coastal areas. Recently, however, many of them have deployed deep inside Iraq, where U.S. military forces now must contend with about 30 roadside bombs a week, double the number of a year ago.

"The Army and Marines just don't have enough [explosive-disposal] teams," explained Lt. Steve Gilbert, officer in charge of the Navy's EOD Mobile Unit 2, Det. 20. "So they sent out a request for forces, and the Navy had the personnel to support them."

As a result, Navy teams are being detailed to Army units in Iraq. For example, Gilbert's detachment, based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, Va., recently returned from a six-month deployment to Baghdad.

"We were assigned to the 63rd Ordnance Battalion," Gilbert told National Defense.

The 63rd is part of the 52nd Ordnance Group (EOD), which provides explosive-disposal teams for the entire Army. The detachment worked with units of the 1st Cavalry Division in and around Baghdad.

Members of the detachment agreed to talk about their deployment in general, but were careful not to discuss operational details. "We can't get too much into specifics," warned Gunner's Mate 1st Class Scott Mielock.

"We dealt with everything from VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, or car bombs) to hand grenades--everything you could think of," said Chief Petty Officer Randolph Lawson, the detachment's senior enlisted man.

During the deployment, the unit--which is made up of EOD eight technicians--responded to 567 calls for assistance, including 60 or so post-blast incidents, Lawson said. If the device already has exploded, EOD specialists conduct an investigation.

"We try to figure out how the device was made and sized," he said. "We gather fragments. Based on experience, we often can tell a lot about the device."

Military intelligence specialists are keen to know where the bombs originated. "Most of the ordnance is foreign," Lawson said. "It's not only Russian. It's Bulgarian, Chinese, Yugoslavian, Egyptian, Iranian-from basically anybody who makes ordnance."

There is plenty of it needing attention, Gilbert noted. "A lot of munitions--like mortar rounds or RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)--are...