My best friend is EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). It is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. He sent me the following charity information. Please check them out.
The annual EOD Memorial is tomorrow, May 2nd. Every year, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technicians from all branches gather to honor the fallen. There’s a memorial wall at Eglin AFB, Florida (colocated with NAVSCOLEOD).
The EOD Warrior Foundation raises money for the families of the fallen and maintains the memorial wall. I’m a cake-eating civilian now, but I haven’t forgotten where I came from, and this is pretty important to me.
Four years ago this month, Chris Solesbee from the Hill AFB EOD flight was killed in Afghanistan. Also killed was his teammate, Joseph Hamski, from the Spangdahlem Air Base flight. I spent some time at Spang and they were like family to me.
Both men were assigned to what we called Bravo Flight in Afghanistan. It was the unit I served with there, and my flight was the one to replace the one that lost those two. My rotation was very fortunate; we had no KIA. Three friends of mine were blown up and injured, though. Several Army techs died while I was there, and a Navy tech was severely wounded.
Before I left Afghanistan, in January 2012, the Air Force lost an entire team in Helmand Province.
So, if you would be kind enough to post a link to the EODWF on your blog, with an explanation, I would very much appreciate it. It might raise some awareness and possibly raise a little bit of money.
sent a recurring donation.
=( I tried to make a donation but they don’t allow input of non US/Canada states, and it’s a required field.
I’ll retweet it though.
Better robots capable of dealing with EOD situations cannot come too soon.
Not nearly as popular as your post about Arthur Chu, LOL. But thank you, Larry. This means a lot to me.
What a great foundation to back, Larry. I am a veteran, but I just cannot imagine what these brave soldiers do every day.
I worked with EOD as an Electronic Warfare Officer. The EOD enlisted are smart, deliberate, and capable. They nearly always have a way to send in a robot, or a Buffalo with the long arm. They always work to mitigate risk and create smart plans of attack. Every once in a while, they face a situation where the robot can’t get there, the MRAP with the claw can’t get there, and they have to crawl into a hole and disarm enough explosives to turn them into mist with a multi tool, headlamp, and guts.
My hat is off to them. Thank you for spreading this, I will ensure those I work with are aware of this. This isn’t a charity, this is taking care of people who, to paraphrase you “play high speed murder death chess with the enemy”.
– Murphy’s Roommate
What a surprise to read your post and see Joseph Hamski’s name! He graduated from the high school where I teach.
His family started “Jog4Joe” in 2013–it’s a 5k run, walk, ruck, or crawl on Memorial Day. Proceeds go to the EOD Warrior Foundation and to Fisher House.
http://jog4joe5k.wix.com/jog4joe5k
https://www.facebook.com/OttumwaJog4Joe
If anyone who reads this visits Ottumwa around Memorial Day, it would be an honor to ruck with you!
I didn’t know Joe Hamski, but my team leader in Afghanistan was from his shop (Spangdahlem Air Base). I later spent six months at Spang, and they were like my family.
omg… How about ‘honor to run with you’ instead?
*red faced*
No, “rack” would have been red-faced…