Airmen at Eglin AFB, Fla., came together April 21 to honor the six explosive ordnance disposal airmen who have been killed in action in Southwest Asia since January 2006, reports Capt. Chrissy Cuttita with the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency. The names of those six and eight other US military EOD specialists were added to the list of 196 names etched in stone on a special EOD memorial. All six airmen graduated from the Naval School of EOD, a DOD school located at Eglin. “EOD is a family,” said CMSgt. Jeff Schley, Air Combat Command’s EOD functional manager, adding that he “personally knew two of them. We train together, fight together, and mourn together.”
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.