Hey everybody thanks for tuning in we have an update from Ukraine you heard
the original podcast with Mike Montoya and Stu and now we have Trevor
Trevor Kirten on board to tell us what's going on in Ukraine so if you're
interested in doing some work over there hear what's going on maybe you can help
out so strap in for this next edition
this is EOD gear improvised everyone in EOD has a laser calibrated eyeball and
plenty of attitude to go with it
up now
all right hey enough of that let's just get straight to it Michael Stu
Trevor thanks for joining us today what's going on we're yet we're
East the car keys so you guys just drove over there are you guys inbound or you
taking a break what are you guys doing we're just at the end of our workday
actually so we kind of get after it every single day and go out and respond to a
different task that the area has or we get assigned an area to do surveys to
try to find things and then work with the local authorities for final
proposal the items when you do find them so where you're at tonight where you
you're hunkered down you're at the Ritz Carlton right absolutely a chat
to something or other well tell us a little bit about living conditions where
you're at in the evening well as far out it's it's all quiet at night you can
walk outside and see the stars is really no lights on at this point you know
once it gets dark out of here and people aren't really moving around too much
but I were staying in an abandoned school at the moment because there's no
schools out for a while all right so tomorrow well tomorrow I guess tomorrow
morning for you will be Sunday are you guys working or you know what's your
schedule look like for the week yeah so each one we get out do a quick
equipment check get all the stuff that was charging overnight off the charger
make sure everyone has their kit do a final kind of Phillip of the the water
containers and then we head out to the sites if we already have an active site
and we continue doing our survey or emergency EOD spot-ask because we're not
doing a complete clearance because that involves a lot more personnel a lot
more resources to do you know every centimeter out there but you know as
people find things or especially farmers and and people within these smaller
villages find stuff it's just kind of like a regular EOD task talk to the
witness and get them the guide you out using all front overhead protection and
we go confirm whether it's something or and or deal with it at that point so
are you guys doing or are you doing BIPs are you doing remote poles and then
transport to disposal just depends on what yeah yeah so currently once we do
find something we do our remote procedures and consolidate them a lot of
times we're are sometimes working in our own little area like a prior fighting
Russian fighting position where they've mined and there's a ordinance items
land mines both the anti-tank or anti-vehicle and and I personnel and we
consolidate the site talk to the local authorities they come out and help us with
the demolitions as you know they're the ones with the explosives and that's
awesome that's awesome so you got you got the the new guy Trevor who's a former
UK para or I'm sorry British paratrooper and a close protection who decided to
get his EOD credentials through I'm asked so Trevor what's going on with you what
what what brought you into this line of work did you just I say thank you well
it goes back a while because my my father was an ex-rule Navy mine closed
either so I've ordered that always have an interest in the EOD side of life and
last year I decided to get into the EOD business so I did my courses with a
company called IC in Oxford in England once I completed those courses I then
decided to head out to Ukraine by jumping on an A convoy drive across Europe
entered through Poland and then I reached out to these guys due and Michael and
the rest is history so you were you did your training at Oxford and so you were
like next to what Christ College or no no it's an EOD company based in just
outside Bambi so they they have instructors who are ex-army and they
teach everything from IMS COD 1 2 and 3 to improvised explosive device courses
to our motat addition officer courses okay so now is that open for the public
you got to pay to attend that or is that how does that yeah it's open to the
public yeah you know and obviously yeah you pay your money and you know
whatever course you want to do and then they also help you try and find
employment through their sort of contact that they have well that's unique
because not many universities here help their students find work and they just
take their money so that's not really refreshing to hear so well I know Michael
is excited to have you there and let me let me come back to you Stu are you there
yes I am how you doing I'm good Stu hey just a reminder to everybody Stu is a
12 Bravo combat engineer and he's been rolling around there with Michael you
guys been over there what over a year now yeah I started coming last last
March after the invasion kicked off I've been coming back and forth but I've
been here since January okay okay so what what what are you guys running into
what's in and feel free to any three of you to jump in you know what what do you
want to talk about EOD because I know we have a lot of EOD listeners but we
have a lot of non-texts listening as well I know they'd like to hear you know
life in the day yeah it's it's been pretty interesting and when we seem to
be getting a little bit of everything the area we are working in is it east of
the country obviously so it's kind of right in the middle of all sorts of stuff
going on we've we've got a bunch of fields that we've kind of been assigned
to and each one definitely presents a difference and you need to challenge one
one field to be anti tank mines another anti personnel we we stumbled across a
vehicle or excuse me I fueled the other day that they were running trackers
through another vehicle through that is littered with PFM one mine so that's
it you know it's just every day it's something different which we share with
our buddies in the industry and they kind of can't believe some of the stuff we're
seeing so it is entertaining at least it never gets boring but at this point
we've seen a little bit of everything so everybody's working together even
though you're in different organizations best practices helping each other
yeah for the most part you know we we mostly work with Ukrainian authorities
however we've had run-ins and join ops with different organizations Ryan
Henderson and tip of the spear was out there sweating some time with us last
week we had a good time running around with him for a little bit good bunch of
guys doing a lot of good stuff as well so yeah right yeah you group will pop up
like so are you looking for more people to join you I mean you've you've
increased 50% in size from you know two to three but you know what what do you
guys need what are you looking for it certainly manpower is always it's always
needed the jobs are are endless around here so we're always looking for
volunteers that want to come out help out brush up your skills get some good
experience so that's certainly always but always appreciated with that have a
good amount of applicants in the pipeline right now but certainly if
people want to come out and help out whether it's for a few weeks a month
whatever it might be so we're playing with you directly through sense of
liberty international yes yeah there is there's a link on the the website to
apply if interested and likewise if people want to reach out to us directly
we can try to help place them in other groups as well doing other stuff where
we're pretty much connected to everyone aid wise and volunteer wise without
your man that's great so you're you're primarily looking for somebody who has
experience in EOD explosives battlefield not yeah it's not the whole game well
no no you know so your your SAP or combat engineer type that no how to at
least look for and safely approach and identify the explosive hazard and you
know that's where having different personnel on the teams at the different
experience levels you know a little bit more technical a little bit more
practical a little bit of this little bit of that is what's really making the
dynamic the team and keeping everyone safe fantastic fantastic well so and
that is on Sons of Liberty international dot-com and for everybody
there you know this is a 501c3 it is a not-for-profit so if you have a little
extra change laying around and you want to you feel compelled to help you can
go to Sons of Liberty international dot-com there is a donate now button on
there you can pitch in there or put in your application and and go go dig in
the dirt so now Michael you gave me some feedback the landmine probes are
working out well yeah we uh the probes doing good we were working with some
the emergency services and and they're used to using metal probes so one of
them kind of got little bendy with one of them and broke the tip off so it's a
shorter probe now it's been re-sharpened but it's still I mean it goes right
through the ground right now in these early months of spring and summer most
of the time they are just agriculture-filled so you know in mid-day it's a
little bit of a crush but as soon as you punch through it those probes just go
right into the ground and do their job and and they stop once they hit a mine
so they're they're doing good so you need you need some more of those every
little bit helps and anytime we have access or like we're working with like
one of the emergency services or the police the EOD police task force and
one of them had a stick the other day that was kind of curved and that's what
he's using so he kind of got an upgrade yeah that doesn't work well hey why don't
we do why don't we do something like this I could say hey you know of course
we we sent you those landmine probes and they are for sale in our catalog but
you know why don't we say if somebody wants to go online and buy one I can
custom engrave it with you know if they want to if their customer wants to put
their name on it or maybe their favorite motivational saying engraved that I
handled a send to you and then we could also throw some extra kit to bump that
up a bit would that be all right with you no that'd be perfect and the other
thing is we're not the best social media people but we've started to kind of get
you know into it so if you want to see what we're doing day-to-day you can
follow us like on Twitter I know sometimes we're trying to get on Instagram and
other things as well I think I tagged you on or a EOD gear on a post a few days
ago when I was doing the kit kind of overview so I'll have to find that I
apologize we've been so covered up here I just haven't been on social that much
so I will definitely get that out why don't we do some way we'll do landmine
probe somebody wants to buy a landmine probe will with their favorite saying
or maybe a name or a unit or a company or whatever it is we'll take a picture of
it posted to social tag you in it and then absolutely send those over to you
and then we'll throw in a bunch extra kit we'll throw in some ceramics and
some more remote pole line we'll figure something out and we'll put absolutely
there's anything you ever want tested this is a prime time to test yeah talking
about the ultimate TNE TNE Center yeah I'll take a look around I'll see what
else we have coming around that we have we have some more extra kit because I
know we got you a good little supply there a few months ago so we'll see what
else we have kicking around here yeah we've been using those 90 foot rope
extensions you gave as we put a pulley on it kind of gets us our first initial
you know turning point and then we add our 100 meter spool to it or one of the
detonation technology 200 footers yeah and kind of gives us those almost
exact distances we know where to safe position when we can start pulling
things yeah that way if you blow up our our remote pole lines it's no no big deal
yeah it'll get shorter and shorter anytime a month to go boom but we'll
just go ahead and tie it up and tape it up and keep it going until it comes down
to just an inch you know that's awesome well well I know we have more here I
know we're doing a lot more spools so we always have extra lines so we'll
we'll create all that up for you and absolutely get that out to you so I would
say we used them two days ago to pull pull six and I tank mines one TM 62 P3 and
five TM 62 Ms nice well so cut a shift away what are you guys doing for fun
over there I mean other than work are you guys getting some downtime at all
well surprising enough it's the whenever we go fill the vehicle once every 045
days gas station hot dogs wow no gas station sushi don't stay away from the
sushi so is Trevor teaching you guys how to play rugby it's the proper football
yeah I mean he he might seem like he's he's an old English gentleman but I
need a break break our hips if we didn't need that stuff with him yeah it's a
good it's a great sport man it's you should play get up get what's I choose
you guys where maybe we have some people who send some boots over to you and get
the the EOD scrum going over there I wish I think the British size for you is
10 but I think it's a US 10 is a half and I'm a 12 and 2 is a 13 these are the
tall gentlemen there you go yeah we'll see we'll see if we got any takers out
there that can send some boots over to you and you know excited I will years
ago with a gentleman named Mark Young aka Angus we started the Panama City
Beach rugby Hurricanes football club and so maybe I can hit him up and maybe
get a ball in the in the yeah yeah on that but on that no we were looking on
on your site and just at the D mining stuff we saw those what the D mining
boots or whatever got the kelvar bottom like man those might be interesting
because like I don't know if you said it but in that PFM field the farmers
ended up just kind of turning the field over a little bit yeah and so some of the
PFM they're just under the ground so it we do the long shovel kind of yeah to
try to get them out and it doesn't always go as planned but using a shovel
and a shovel and then a rubber tire for a little bit of a standoff and all the
you know helmets body armor gloves and hearing protection eye protection we
kind of pop them out of the ground so then that way they can get disposed of
because how are you guys how are you guys doing on iPro
we have some kits I can I can send some they're like the three lens kit glasses
yeah ultimately anything helps and the biggest thing is I know our counterparts
they don't wear any because they don't have any I mean we ever once
wanted to see some guy with some for the coke bottle you know I wear but he has
to have them to see right right I know since I've been here last time we talked
I think I told you I gave away but one of the I brought two Oakley's out we gave
away one and when I left last time gave it out and then when I was coming back I
had a set of revisions that I brought out this time so yeah hold on to kind of
go into yeah I get it well what else what else can we do I'll give you kind of
the last word here what what else can we what can we do for you or what can the
listeners you know you got everybody's attention with all the great work you're
doing out there what can we what's what's what are you looking for well I know
since last time we had the podcast a group reached out and sent us a bunch
of medical so here's a shout out for them it's already being put to you thank
you thank you thank you very much and that's kind of almost always needed any
anytime that we're working with another organization we at least try to make
them an I fact to carry with each of them you know we can't just give out a
full you know like squatter platoon size kit but we try to make sure every D
minor and or EOD D minor that's police or emergency services or works with us
at least they have a kit whenever they walk away and again just any and all
additional supplies that that we have access we try to make sure that the
people that are doing the work day in day out at least given that curve of a
chance to stay safe so they can keep doing it the day after man that's great
that is fantastic well I guess Trevor and Stu do you guys have any you want to
give a shout out to anybody or is there anything that you're specifically
looking for yeah I mean like Monty said just kind of anything and I know that
speaking for all of us we do appreciate the support we've had a good number of
people help us out any little bit keeps us going and a lot of things that we do
get we don't put them right to use we get them to somebody who can so for all
those who've been listening and supporting and sending things out we
appreciate it just know that it's going you know right to the front line areas
to get put right to work by people who are doing long days out the field I mean
not just us obviously but certainly the Ukrainians we work with are day in do
out day out doing a lot of good things and they appreciate it we appreciate it
no end of sight I you know a lot of people I asked when they think how long
it's gonna take the clear this place and I think we we think it'll never really
ever be clear and to a new unfortunate yeah I'm fighting today 200 years yeah
yeah there's a saturation is this is crazy and you know just all of us we're
honored to do our part to try to help about somebody who has we're fortunate
enough to be able to see Tans will result day in and day out but we're gonna
hope and we're hoping to keep it going as long as we possibly can and so for all
those who support us we appreciate it sounds great guys hey good luck be safe
and I'll run I'll run some promotion up and see if we can get you guys well you
know well we'll send out some more kit to you but everybody check out Sons of
Liberty International dot com put in your resume go on over and work for a
little bit or if you have some spare change laying around and you really want
to help out some guys that are that are really sacrificing to make lives better
for you know little ladies kids everybody that's running around Ukraine
make sure you get them the financial support they need the gents have a great
one and we'll talk soon all right have a good day
we've been listening to EOD gear improvised
Steve Cassidy a former Navy EOD tech and owner owner of EOD gear initial
success or total failure two locations one in Franklin and one in Huntsville
the website is EOD dash gear dot com find us on Facebook Instagram YouTube
LinkedIn and Twitter EOD gear has customers from around the globe until
next time this is EOD gear improvised
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