Beating the bombs

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

By SQNLDR Lindsay Dooley

Training soldiers and police in IED detection can help prevent fatal bombings like this one in the parking lot of an Iraqi police station.

Photo by US Army Specialist Katherine Roth

SQNLDR Paul Muscat, on the left, instructs Korean MAJ Kim Junho on mine search techniques as US Army SSGT Spencer Colburn and Specialist Keyon Cummings look on.

Photo by CAPT Delizia Costa

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* SQNLDR Paul Muscat leads the team responsible for teaching all troops in Iraq about IEDs. The team has trained more than 50,000 people. Iraqi Army and police IED instructors are also trained..

AN AUSTRALIAN Air Force officer has taken charge of the team responsible for teaching all coalition personnel who enter Iraq about explosive hazards.

Squadron Leader Paul Muscat is the first Air Force EOD expert to be embedded within the US Army’s 379th Engineer Battalion, which forms the mine-explosive ordnance information coordination centre in Iraq.

SQNLDR Muscat is the officer in charge of the unit’s Explosive Hazards Awareness Team (EHAT).

All coalition personnel coming into Iraq receive training in hazard awareness, which includes mines, unexploded ordnance and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

The team also runs continuation training in theatre.

SQNLDR Muscat said that since July last year he and his team had trained more than 50,000 personnel. The on-going training conducted by the team means that about 1500 coalition personnel are being trained every day.

The team had also been involved in training instructors for the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police Service for last month’s elections through the conduct of train-thetrainer programs.

These programs are conducted in Arabic through interpreters, and about 40 Iraqis are undertaking this training every day.

“Deaths caused by IEDs have decreased significantly as a result of the training, so I can actually see the results of the team’s training and know that it has been effective,” SQNLDR Muscat said.

“We get thanks from all members of the coalition quite often through emails from guys who are impressed or have survived IED strikes because of what we have taught them.”

EHAT liaise closely with the Coalition IED Task Force and the Combined Exploitation Cell. SQNLDR Muscat is a member of the IED working group, which provides direction and guidance to all coalition forces on how best to deal with the IED threat.

This involves close liaison with teams in the field to verify techniques, tactics and procedures, which by definition requires a considerable amount of travel throughout Iraq.

“I reckon I have one of the best jobs here in the Middle East,” he said.

“I get to travel throughout the theatre and I work with all members of the coalition and Iraqis on a job which is crucial to the stabilisation of Iraq.”

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