SIERRA DEL RETIN, Spain -- Explosive ordnance disposal – Theirs is a small, select community already.
But for the U.S. Marine EOD technicians with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa, their brothers among the Spanish Marine Corps come from an even smaller, but equally select fraternity.
The two groups spent weeks communicating with each other and discussing how they conduct operations within their respective services. They coordinated a training plan that could benefit both groups and joined forces to take part in the 2nd Battalion, Spanish Marine Brigade’s live-fire field exercise in Sierra Del Retin, Spain, May 4-6.
The opportunity was a unique chance to explore how technicians from a partner nation approach the explosive ordnance field, said Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Villarreal, an EOD technician deployed with SPMAGTF-CR-AF in Spain.
“It all falls back on being able to work together and learn each other’s capabilities to spread that knowledge,” said Villarreal. “Any training is good training, but this allows us to glean as much from this deployment as we can by gaining knowledge from another NATO ally. In the future, as we continue doing this, it’s going to grow that interoperability.”
Five U.S. Marine and three Spanish Marine EOD technicians discussed how they conduct operations and demonstrated their equipment and techniques during live-fire ordnance disposal. The U.S. Marines also demonstrated their various methods for defeating improvised explosive devices, drawing from their team’s extensive background with IEDs from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Some of the procedures we do, they do with minor differences here and there, but most of it is the same concepts,” said Villarreal. “It let us see how they operate, and they saw how we operate. If there’s ever an opportunity for us to work together again in the future, we know their capabilities, they know our capabilities, and we can combine those.”