AMMO troops teach what it takes to build bombs

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sara Csurilla
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
It's hot and muggy. You're in a new environment surrounded by lush jungle and the smell of sweat, oil and metal lingers as the humming of air compressors clouds the instructions being yelled through your earplugs; instructions on how to build live explosives.

This was the reality for a group of trainees April 8 when Airmen from the 18th Munitions Squadron gave them a crash course in how to build bombs.

The group of students included the wing commander, command chief and several other group and squadron commanders.

"The reason for this event was to give leadership around the wing an idea of what it takes to get AMMO out to the flightline either to be loaded on aircraft or be transported to another location," said 1st Lt. Meade Tabata, 18th MUNS systems flight commander.

The bomb-building course took place in the munitions storage area, an area that takes up more than 60 percent of Kadena, yet the majority of people who come on base have and will never step foot in.

So when the group of commanders arrived, it was no dog-and-pony show. They were put to work.

They unpacked huge metal containers, sometimes taking four men to carry one bomb component a few feet and worked as a team to build the bombs that will actually be taken to the flightline and put on planes oneday.

A crew chief leading a portion of the exercise from the 18th MUNS, Tech. Sgt. Kevin Kasper, huddled them in a circle to explain safety precautions, the equipment they would use and the steps they would take to build bombs.

As they went through the procedures, with help from the AMMO troops, some gained a new perspective on what goes on behind the scenes before bombs are placed on aircraft that they might be flying.

"It's pretty intense," said the deputy commander of the 18th Operations Group, Col. Matthew Molineux, as sweat dripped beneath his hard hat. "I wanted to come out here and see what they do because I didn't have a good understanding about the tasks involved, the pressures they work under and the environment they do it in in order to get bombs out to the flightline, on the jets and off to war."

The group leaders spent a little over an hour working as a team, going through the step-by-step process of how to build the different kinds of bombs.

Sergeant Kasper said the overall objective was to give wing leadership a "hands on" point of view of what the typical AMMO troop does, and after getting their hands dirty, AMMO troops helped them do just that.

"The event was a total success," Sergeant Kasper said. "The DVs did an outstanding job. I honestly didn't think they would build the bombs they were tasked to build, but they did. I can't wait to do it again."