EOD called to assist with pipe bomb diffusion

  • Published
  • By Valerie Mullett
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Two members from Malmstrom's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team were called out to diffuse a pipe bomb Sunday on the Bootlegger lateral road that connects with U.S. Highway 87 north of Great Falls. 

The pipe bomb was discovered by a land owner in the area who called it in to the Cascade County Sheriff's Office, who in turn, requested assistance from Malmstrom. 

"All of our notifications come through the command post," said Master Sgt. C.J. Reeves, superintendent of the EOD flight here. "Through a conference call with the parties involved, we then determine if we have a legitimate threat. In this case, we did, so we went out to assist." 

Sergeant Reeves and EOD team member Senior Airman Mike Wright responded to the scene at approximately 4:30 p.m. After talking with officers on the scene, the two set off on their mission to diffuse the bomb, which took the pair about 45 minutes to complete. 

"We used a dearmer and robotics," Sergeant Reeves said. "The dearmer was used to shoot a slug to remove the end caps of the bomb. The robot was then sent in to lift the bomb and dump out the contents." 

The bomb was about two inches in diameter and about 10 inches long. It was made of galvanized steel and filled with smokeless powder. 

Sergeant Reeves, who is relatively new to Malmstrom, said this was his first time working on-scene with Airman Wright and he was impressed. 

"He is a robotics guru. Extremely skilled at manipulating the remote platform," he said.
Airman Wright has been stationed at Malmstrom for four years and has deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq while here. 

"When you are in harms way, you learn fast to become skilled at what you do for your own safety and that of those around you," Airman Wright said. 

Once the pipe bomb had been dismantled, Sergeant Reeves went in to the location before clearing the area as safe. 

"After being deployed, it becomes ingrained in you to be cautious of secondary and tertiary threats," he said. "I went in to make sure, this was, in fact, a single threat." 

Once cleared, the team bagged the evidence and turned it over to the authorities, who are now conducting an investigation.