SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Deployed explosive ordnance disposal and military working dog teams with the U.S. Marines and U.S. Air Force completed various improvised explosive ordinance training scenarios at an undisclosed location, Feb. 9, 2017.
The 380th Air Expeditionary Wing hosted the joint-service training between the 380th Explosive Ordnance Disposal, 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron and Commander, Task Group (CTG) 56.7.
“We take any and all opportunities to train with the different entities of the Department of Defense,” U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Bradley, 380 EOD Non Commissioned Officer in Charge, said. “The more we know about one another's responsibilities the more information we can provide one another to stay safe and complete the tasks at hand.”
During the training the EOD and MWD teams were able to train for real world scenarios that may occur in day-to-day operations while in a deployed environment.
U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Charles Rutledge, CTG 56.7 military working dog handler, discussed the importance of developing joint-service relations in the area of responsibility.
“We never know who we’re going to get attached too,” Rutledge said. “I’ve worked with several agencies while apart of the military working dog community and we have one goal to find explosive devices prevent people from being injured.”
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas, 380 ESFS kennel master, organized the joint-service training.
“These opportunities build relationships among services that we might not get at home,” Nicholas said. “With dog training, there are so many ways to develop our dogs and working with other services to share training ideas always makes training that much better.”