Navy divers and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team members from the Pacific Northwest met with Coast Guardsmen at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Quillayute River in La Push, Wash., for a week-long training evolution, June 22-26.

According to Lt. Daniel Pick, officer in charge of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU ) 11 Det. Bangor, the Homeland Defense Interoperability Exercise provides an opportunity for both communities to learn how their counterparts work, while training together to complete their mission.

“It’s an opportunity for multiple members of the EOD community to cross train and to work with the Coast Guard,” said Pick. “We do improvised explosive device awareness training with them, because they can come across vessels that they board that could very well have explosive components or explosive hazards, and we want to make sure they are as safe as possible. In turn, we learn what their procedures are for a rescue in the event we have a dive-related casualty.”

Dive and EOD members taught Coast Guardsmen what to look for when locating and identifying explosives and what to do in the event they encounter explosives during their daily evolutions, such as vessel boarding. With the increased role of the Coast Guard in national security, this training is vital in ensuring Coast Guardsmen have the tools they need to help protect the nation. 

“After 9/11, our missions have changed. We now work for Homeland Security and part of that is working with the EOD guys. They train us on how to identify improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and what potential trends are out there, such as the magnetic bombs, mines, etc.,” said Coast Guard Chief Boatswain’s Mate Ty Ferrell, surfman trainer for the U.S. Coast Guard Station Quillayute River. “We may not have much of that here in La Push, but eventually these guys will transfer from here and to one of our antiterrorism teams.  This kind of training will benefit the Coast Guard as a whole.”

The Coast Guardsmen also learned how to recognize dive-related injuries, which will enable them to better protect citizens they may encounter.

“We thought this would be a good opportunity to share this knowledge with these guys,” said Senior Chief Navy Diver (master diver) Boy Kayona from EODMU 11 Det. Whidbey Island. “I think it’s very important for them to recognize dive-related injuries and decompression sickness. Dive related injuries can be really serious, and if a person is not aware of that, they can end up doing a lot more harm to the diver by unintentional neglect.”

Pick said this training is vital to divers’ operational tasks.  Sailors who perform dive-related duties rely on the Coast Guard to transport individuals who have encountered dive-related injuries. Pick says it’s also important for the Coast Guard to see firsthand how the Navy executes dive operations, while training to look for potential emergency situations.

“Our standard operating procedure indicates that in the event of an emergency we would contact the Coast Guard, and we’re always aware of where the nearest recompression chamber is located,” said Pick. “The benefit for the Coast Guard is for them to understand what our capabilities are and to see us in action here because they don’t have a lot of military personnel here.”

Ferrell said his team greatly benefited from the exercise and hopes to continue to build relationships and increase interoperable capabilities.

“The importance of this training in today’s age is self-evident. There are people out there who want to hurt the U.S., and we are on the front lines of homeland security,” said Ferrell. “It’s imperative that we do this kind of training, regardless of where we are.  The divers we are working with are topnotch, and we look forward to doing more future operations with them.”

Pick said he hopes to expand this kind of training to other members of the community, to include more Coast Guard members from around the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas and security personnel protecting the military installations in the area.