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Creepy crawlies kept contained

  • Published
  • By By Staff Sgt. Nathan Gallahan
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ALI BASE, Iraq --  Keeping creepy crawlies contained within Iraq is one of the biggest reasons Airmen from the 407th Provost Marshal's office inspect the bags and equipment of every Airman, Soldier, Sailor, civilian or other coalition forces personnel heading home.

"We're at the center of the program overseeing more than 90 inspectors assigned to Contingency Operating Base Adder, which inspects the cargo of more than 10,000 personnel and several million pounds of incoming and outgoing cargo," said Airman 1st Class Cody Colston, 407th PMO military police Airman, deployed from Royal Air Forces Lakenheath, United Kingdom. "The Provost Marshal's office act as the lead customs agent for the base; we inspect anything and everything going through here,"

The Provost Marshal's office also manages and certifies Army and Navy customs inspectors for the program.

The Airmen search for contraband items, such as war trophies, and living creatures trying to hitch a free ride back to the United States.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. loses approximately $22.9 billion each year in crops lost to alien pests, such as the Khapra Beetle, which the PMO Airmen are trained to find; these beetles have been known to single-handedly cause more than $23 million in agricultural losses a year.

"One of the biggest reasons we do this is because we're keeping foreign life from being imported into the United States," said Tech. Sgt. Benny Pierce, 407th PMO investigator, deployed from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

Airmen are looking for all life within the cargo, including insects like camel spiders, black- and yellow-legged scorpions and sand flies. They are also checking to make sure all the cargo is clean, because soil from in-theatre can harbor seeds of invasive species of plants, which reportedly cost the U.S. $138 billion and three million acres of lost land yearly.

Foreign insects and plants, however, pose only a small threat to land and agriculture, in comparison to the damage that could be caused to entire ecosystems if snakes, such as the desert horned viper or black desert cobra made it back to the homeland.

"If foreign snakes got in, they could eradicate entire species of birds," said Senior Airman Darren Taylor, 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron entomologist, deployed from Hickam AFB, Hawaii. "If they got into the United States, they could have a huge effect on agriculture and native wildlife."

That's why the military police Airmen spend up to 120 man-hours a week completing these inspections.

"When our Airmen arrive, they go through a four-hour customs class to get trained up on how to do these inspections and a practical application certification," said Capt. Kevin Lombardo, 407th Provost Marshal's office provost marshal, deployed from Peterson AFB, Colo. "We want to be environmentally friendly for our ecosystem back in America and prevent the contamination of foreign life and organisms."