 I hate this question. It's like what is EOD? I hate that question. When people hear the word like EOD tech or bomb tech, you know, they think about like stuff they see on like cutting wires and stuff like that. I always get asked about the cutting of the wires. Oh, you want to cut the red wire? I'm like, I'm very rarely cutting wires. You can parachute, you can scuba dive, you can shoot every gun in the U.S. arsenal. You shoot, we jump, we dive. Like, I don't know. It sounds funny, but... I think when you're faced with an explosive hazard or something inherently dangerous, when do you play? You can call. So Navy EOD, we deal with getting people from point A to point B in a safe manner, dealing with any explosive hazards. So you have surface, which goes into a lot of your IED type problems. You have the diving mission set, anything water-based, mind counter measures. We're versing chem and bio hazards, your nuclear hazards. Not to mention we're capable of jumping, shooting, maneuvering, that kind of thing as well. Lots of robot training, and then at some point you can't get a robot in there. You're going to have to actually walk in there with your feet. Proficient and demolition, which is very important. Proficient shooting. Hold that one, let's say up there as well. Must be able to be a good diver and then attack whatever mission set comes. And then if you throw all these things together, it becomes what EOD is. It's not just one thing, it's all of it. The mobile unit is kind of the heart and soul of it. The mobile unit, they're going to have the platoons that actually push out to do the work. So we are mobile unit, and every mobile unit has a different breakdown of different platoons with different specialties. We have these eight man platoons. We'll go off and we'll do our specific mission sets. And there's about 12 platoons at each mobile unit that will comprise the EOD mobile unit. So generally all the teams are going to have roughly the same training. And then you're going to go into your mission specific stuff. We are set up to do an 18 month workout and a six month deployment. And you're training pretty much for that entire time. Typical day, you might come into work and I guess it depends on the day you shoot. A typical week is structured where at least three days are dedicated to training pretty hard on one of these mission sets. I like shooting, so naturally anytime we go shooting it's great. So it is very important that we are proficient in small arms. So the number one thing, we are a combat support unit. So we support units like if you can't be safe with a weapon, you can't be competent with a weapon, you cannot support those weapons. So at a bare minimum, you have to be able to flow competently and safely with any weapon system that you might have to pull. Shooter stand by. There's a lot of times where it's weird to me that I'm doing activities as part of my job that people either pay really good money for or can't imagine that that's what I'm doing for work. Things like jumping and diving and not sitting in an office all day. Every week it's a new mission set and you're focusing on something new so it doesn't really give you time to get bored. We're in sunny Key West right now. Our platoon came down here to get our deep dives that we'll need for our RFRP. So yeah, it's a good time to get good training because we can't get this depth or clarity in Virginia Beach. So this is a good little getaway from there and get some good diving and good weather. It is fun. I mean there's always a lot of work with diving, especially the pre and post. It's a lot of work, but you do all this work and then you actually get some good depth and good dives. The places where it's going actually have some pretty cool spots to see. So yeah, I'd say it's worth it. Alright Dan, let's do it. I enjoy it. I like to dive. I'd say it's probably split 50-50. A lot of guys that were in the Navy, but they'd rather be on land. Yeah, I think most of my team gets pretty sick, including me. Both Rocks, I'm ready to pee. Yeah, it's just the name of the game. I don't know. I've always been this way my whole life. Yeah. Super, super easy to get sea sickness. A miracle cure for sea sickness. Ginger bits. That's not bad. Yeah, so I think the big thing that distinguishes us from Army and Air Force and Marine Corps IODs is the fact that we are a premier maritime IOD force. And that just basically boils down to the fact that we have undersea capabilities with the Mark 16 diving, the scuba capabilities that we have. Again, that's very broad for some of the more specific things and operations that we can do under water. But like I mentioned before, we're more just facilitators for that freedom of maneuver and we have the capability of taking that undersea. I mean, our major threats are going to be any mine that any ship couldn't possibly come across them because the damage of that could be catastrophic. Part of our mission set is clearance of routes for folks to go through. And so that's why we're diving this route. Yeah, you'll have your long days and sometimes you might have shorter days. So if you end up with that time off, you use it. Personally, I like to go skating. That's my thing. So I'll blow off some steam at the skate park. Just kind of get my mind off the work day and relax a little bit. Say it's a very physically demanding job so anytime you can tie your hobbies into things that also increase your physical fitness, that's a win-win. You need to enjoy sweating. You need to enjoy running and lifting weights because that is a standard that we have. You've got to be a good runner. You've got to be a good swimmer and you've got to be strong. I think it's one of the most important things. And I'm not just biased because I love to work out and it's mostly what I do every time. It's an expectation and people hold themselves to high standards and I think physical fitness is a part of that. It's basically built into our days to go work out and be in the best shape that we can be so that you don't have to worry about that. Ordnance is heavy. This kit is heavy. The bomb suit is heavy. The robot is extremely heavy. Oh yeah, that bomb suit is insane. I don't put that in there. But you need some physical stamina to be in that thing. It's going to get hot. It's going to get annoying. It's going to get heavy real quick. So you need to be able to have that strength and longevity. This is important. These guys on the front side are taking over. Remember we talked about your tanning button. I wish everybody's tanning button for you. It gets in my way forward. And then when you come up, those tips aren't going to get all the way through because it's such a claw-down exercise. So don't go as low because the reform is fine. So the strike program is a brand new program that they've introduced to the EOD community and it basically focuses on teaching us physical fitness in a healthy, productive way so we're not injuring ourselves. Not only do we have great facilities to work out in, but we also have strength coaches that are teaching us the appropriate way to lift, to work out, to train our bodies. We have physical therapists and athletic trainers that are basically at our whim to just make us better and fix what's broken and help us continue our job. This is a great program for dudes to walk in, get fixed, get help and then be ready for the next chapter. So yeah, it's been a really good program so far. I'm happy with it. For the old guys, it'll get us back in the fight and for the young guys, it's going to keep them in the fight a lot longer. We've already come across two booby traps, so we're just going to go ahead and go set up a charge on it and get rid of the ordinance where it lies. When I started the pipeline, I was going through EOD school. There was a senior chief that told me having a platoon is like getting the keys to a Ferrari. And I didn't really understand what that meant until I got here and got my own platoon, but these people are really intelligent, want to work hard, very driven individuals, and when you put a group of individuals like that with a multitude of experiences coming from different walks of life with a ton of different backgrounds, and you manage that effectively, you see something come together that is like driving a Ferrari. The platoon is built on trust. If you know that no matter what level a person is out on the platoon, that you trust them to do what they need to do when you're in a high pressure situation, then there's nothing else that you can really ask for, and I think that that's what the community itself is really built on. You have to really trust each other. You build that bond. That's why we spend so much time together, is you need to trust that guy, you know, with your life, essentially. One of the mottos of the community is you'll never die twice, because we're not going to forget, and the community has a great job of remembering those we've lost, and even as new guys like myself come up and come through the pipeline, we know everyone that has passed away from the Navy EOD, and I think that that's really important, and we understand the gravity of it. I train and I want to learn as much as I can so that I can be an asset and a help to my teammates if I were ever in a situation like that, and that's what we train to. And I think that that's what, when you train that way, and again have that trust with the people that you're standing next to, that ultimately becomes instinctual when you need to be in a situation like that. Everything that we do out here, there's a lesson behind it, and those lessons were learned in blood. So if you don't take this serious, and nobody catches the fact that you're not prepared, and you make it out the door, you're putting your life and the people who you're supposed to be protecting's life in danger. When you have really high stress jobs, really high risk jobs, you generally picked that job, you volunteered. I can't think of a single example of a high risk job that you can't just walk away from at any time, including this one. Even myself, if I wanted to today, I could drop this body armor, rip the badge off my chest and walk away. So when you are the one who put yourself there, and you stay there voluntarily, you don't really think about worst case. You prepare for it, so you're ready for it, but you don't really think about it. I do have a family, I have three kids, so at some point we're going to deploy, and I won't be able to go home. Today we're going to embark on a three hour tour. The weather starts to get rough. This tiny ship will be lost. One of the main reasons I joined the Navy is to fund the dream trip. We've got about four years left, and if everything goes well, this boat's going to turn into a bigger boat that we can all live on. These kids are going to get to see the world without the contractual obligations that I was under when I saw the world. So Thomas, the middle one, he asked me why I always had to leave. So Sarah, my wife, she told him, he's got to go make money so you can get your gumballs. Then one day I was headed out the door and he told me, he said, Daddy, I don't need gumballs anymore. So when I'm home, I'm absolutely home. And when I'm at work, I'm absolutely at work. It took me a while to learn where that line is, but I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing. There are not a whole lot of places to where you get a familial bond with people who aren't your family. There is a high standard to what's expected. Not everyone is suited for that, but I would recommend the community every day of the week. I think that the UD community is some of the best quality of people that I have ever really seen. And the people are what keep me wanting to be a part of the community, so I would definitely recommend it. Look at how healthy we are. It's a place where you'll absolutely be shown that you could use your brain and body more than probably any other field out there. It takes a person that has a strong mental attitude as well as keeping it positive all the time. How strong is your will? How strong is your mental affordability? How strong are you? And do you want to be stronger? Do you want to strive for that every day? If it happens to be in your cards and you survive the selection process, then you've got a pretty cool job waiting for you. Just knowing the people that have come before me in this community that have done amazing things and knowing the sacrifices that they have made and the things that they have done, and I think that's why I can take a step back and just feel like this badge means something. It really is an honor to be a part of the community, and that is absolutely because of the people that have came before me and the people that are working alongside of me. And that's what makes me proud to really wear the badge. I was leaving the jump zone yesterday and I was just like, you know, it's really cool that on a Thursday I was jumping out of planes and that that's what I had to do for work today. And you take it back and you're like, it puts it in perspective and it makes it even more worth it.