"Narrator:" "The U.S. Military's elite schools turn soldiers into razor-sharp weapons." "[Machine-gun fire]" "To become the best of the best, these men go to hell and back." "Get lower!" "[Groans]" "I can't see!" "Aah!" "We're trying to push them to the breaking point." "Instructor:" "This is your life now." "You're hard-core!" "Let's go!" "Narrator:" "Navy E.O.D. Are America's top bomb specialists." "It's hands down the most dangerous job in the military." "[Soldier screaming]" "We're Americans." "We're here to help you." "Before they go to war, they must pass one final test." "Lyon:" "They're going into a situation where they have no idea what's around the next corner." "Narrator:" "Make the wrong move..." "Woman:" "Get this off of me!" "Crack under pressure and you fail." "We have a bad day, we don't come back home." "Move!" "Narrator:" "Only the best survive the cut." "O'Connor: [groans]" "Narrator:" "The United States Navy's explosive ordnance disposal units, or E.O.D., play a critical role in modern warfare." "Lyon:" "The I.E.D. Threat is just unbelievably big, and everybody's aware of that piece." "Half of our troops over there, overseas, are getting killed by I.E.D.s." "Narrator:" "If any forces encounter explosives or any threat of explosives, they pull back and E.O.D. Rushes in, often under very hostile conditions." "[Gunfire]" "I kind of liken these guys a lot to those guys that went in, the firefighters after 9/11." "They're running into that burning building to try and save those people." "Same thing's happening here." "When a convoy goes and they find something, they're stopping and pulling back." "Well, this guy's going in there, by himself, to take care of that." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. Often operates alongside special-operations forces." "They've been trained to jump, dive, rescue hostages, and operate as assault teams." "On top of all that, they have to be the best in the world at disarming explosives." "I feel like with this job, there's a lot of unknowns, and it takes a very adaptive person to overcome the demands of the job, be able to approach it with a level head." "Anybody can run a mile and do a bunch of push-ups, but when it's a stressful situation, that takes a special person to do it and to want to do it." "Narrator:" "Before E.O.D. Teams can deploy to a war zone, they face one last four-day test... their final certification for war." "Eight sailors assemble at Fort Story, Virginia." "For the next four days, their team, E.O.D. 1, will be tested doing the most dangerous and stressful job in any combat zone." "If they succeed as a unit, the eight men will go to war together." "But if they fail, the team will be split up and the men sent back for more training." "Even experienced men must be recertified here when assigned to a new team." "Snyder:" "Most teams coming through here will be heading out the door relatively soon." "On my last time through here, we were in Iraq in a month." "And each guy's got to be on the same kind of level as far as his ability in an assault environment." "Lyon:" "We bring them all together and just try and stress the heck out of them." "O'Connor:" "Being in Iraq has proven that this is an I.E.D. War." "That's why we accept this kind of stuff with open arms... because we need to be at that level." "And if we're not, I can't go home to my wife and kids." "Lyon:" "You're gonna die here in training so, God forbid, you don't die out there in combat." "Excuse me." "Hold on a second." "I need to talk to the platoon commander." "All right." "Hey, listen." "There's a situation that just happened." "Narrator:" "Without warning, on day 1, an instructor kicks off E.O.D. 1's first mission." "Got it?" "Check." "Right now we've got some intel that we've got six hostages that are being transported in a large van." "Our plan is to interdict this vehicle and rescue the hostages." "The van is en route right now, so we're gearing up as quickly as possible to get out there and take care of business." "Narrator:" "The team must form a plan and head out." "Strike time is in 49 minutes." "Mission one starts now." "The E.O.D. 1 team leader is Lieutenant Brad Snyder." "Snyder:" "We've got our entire E.O.D. Platoon plus an assault force ready to interdict this vehicle." "One of the key elements is a successful assault and to lock down that vehicle and then safely remove those hostages from that dangerous situation." "Narrator:" "Lieutenant Snyder coordinates his plan with a strike force, who will help take down the van." "But I recommend staying in the vehicles." "Once the van is stopped and the enemy neutralized, the bomb specialists will swing into action and deal with the explosives inside." "[Bleep] gets crazy." "You're already in vehicles." "All right." "Good." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 drives to a designated road intersection, where the van will cross." "Strike time in 10 minutes." "They quickly finalize their plan to take down the van without killing the hostages inside." " White, 15-passenger van." " Okay." " Got that, Jimmy?" "Man:" "I got you." "Roger." "Don't shoot unless you absolutely got reason to believe that he's gonna blow that vehicle or himself." "We don't want to take a risk and shoot one of the hostages." "Make sure you're watching your field of fire up there." "Yeah, I gotcha." "All right." "Here we go." "Eyes on." "Target vehicle approaching, about to cross." "Roger!" "Stand by!" "Here we go!" "Narrator:" "The suspect vehicle approaches." "E.O.D. 1 must be ready for anything." "The instructors watch every move." "Soldier:" "Watch the mike." "Go, go, go." "Good, good, good, good, good, good." "Narrator:" "The strike team moves in and takes down the van." "Get down!" "Get down!" " Get out." " Get down!" "Get down!" "[Gunshots, soldiers yelling]" "The goal here is just to stress to them just as much as you possibly can so that they can learn sort of what it feels like to be in combat." "We go ahead and make things timed or have somebody attack them or have an explosion." "Just want to build that stress level up over and over and over again." "Narrator:" "Missions here are based on actual events from a war zone." "Trained role players make it as realistic as possible." "O'Connor:" "You can think it's gonna be one way, and it never is." "I think it's the best way for guys to really understand what they're gonna face." "[Men yelling indistinctly]" "Man:" "Help!" "Help!" "Narrator:" "Inside, they find six hostages, all wired with improvised explosive devices..." "I.E.D. S... and the clocks are ticking." "Snyder:" "Once adrenaline's up and your heart rate starts to race, you got to slow it down." "You just got to take a breath." "You got to take a step back." "And it boils down to threat assessment... what's going on, what's immediately gonna kill me, and what's the next thing that's down the line?" "Narrator:" "Now E.O.D. 1 goes to work." "[Speaking foreign language] Hey, sit still." "Be quiet." "Hey!" "Calm down." "We're Americans." "We're here to help you." "Narrator:" "As the timers run, the team needs to quickly analyze each device and render it safe." "If anyone makes a mistake, a loud siren will blare." "Make too many mistakes, and E.O.D. 1 will fail certification." "O'Connor:" "Mistakes are always made, and having that cap go off needs to ring a bell in your head." "And that's what this training's about, and that's what the instructors are watching, because if they see those mistakes continuously, then maybe you're not really right for this job." "Narrator:" "The team quickly extracts the bound hostages..." "You speak English?" "And continues to assess the explosives." "Soldier:" "Got all of the hostages out of the vehicle." "We got them all separated." "So we've got six separate devices now." "Narrator:" "They must calm panicked hostages..." "Soldier:" "Hey, hey, hey." "While quickly analyzing each unique device." "If any one of the I.E.D. S goes off, it will kill everyone here." "There's no [bleep] chance in hell this thing's gonna go off, okay?" "You got to listen to me." "All right." "Narrator:" "With explosives, there are no second chances." "Got it?" "The E.O.D. Motto, "initial success or complete failure,"" "says it all." "O'Connor:" "Not just walking in and doing your job." "We have a bad day, we don't come back home." "For the devices we separated out," "I need a shot set on all those devices and one in the van." "We've got two central locations... one up here, one back there, and the van itself... and you have a shot on all three." "Narrator:" "Every mission here comes fresh off the battlefield." "A new enemy device or tactic is inserted into the course in less than 72 hours." "Take your hands out." "One by one, the six devices are carefully removed from the hostages and disarmed." "I got him." "Take that device out to where Eric put those other devices." "We got all the guys free." "I want to push all these guys into the vehicles, along with all the assault force, except for three people." "All right." "So we're ready to roll?" "We're ready to roll." "Narrator:" "After disarming the I.E.D. S, E.O.D. 1 follows procedure." "They set charges on the van and the devices." "Our shots are set." "Once you guys are staged on the "X,"" "we'll go ahead and pull smoke." "O'Connor:" "This is real-world here." "A lot of us have been over several different countries." "We've done different things, and this is our tempo, this is what we're doing." "So this is getting the guys ready, the guys that haven't been there, give them a taste of what's to come." "Masur:" "With our mission set, we do a lot of hostage drills." "I've never done a real hostage." "But it was a huge success." "Nobody got hurt except for the bad guys, so we came back alive with all the hostages." "We got to blow up some devices." "They're down a van." "So that's a win in my book." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 has one mission accomplished, but there's no time to rest." "As darkness falls, an assault team has located a village packed with explosives." "Get down!" "Calm!" "Shh!" "Narrator:" "It's 30 miles from base, and E.O.D. 1 must respond immediately." "Day 1 of E.O.D. Final certification is nearly over." "And the eight-man team has one successful mission under their belts." "The team unloads back at base, but there's no break in the action." "An assault unit has just reported a bomb-making operation 30 miles away." "They must move out immediately." "Instructor:" "Attention on deck." "Carry on." "Carry on." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 is briefed on a nighttime operation where they'll work with a special-ops assault unit." "Together, they'll infiltrate a mock Afghan village, where they suspect I.E.D. S are being manufactured." "The area contains a large stash of explosives." "Basically, we're gonna go in there." "We're going after the dudes that you already got briefed on." "We're also going after whatever weapons that they might have, that type of stuff." "So once we get on site, we'll secure the village, and then you guys go to work." "Narrator:" "It's another pressure-packed mission that will require E.O.D., not only to disarm explosives but also to take charge of how they approach a potentially hostile environment." "Navy E.O.D. Units are the only explosives experts trained to work with special-operations forces." "Lyon:" "Our guys can integrate with Special Forces." "In fact, almost 40% of our platoons are direct support to special forces, both Army and Navy." "So the amount of training these guys get, it's just unbelievable." "Where an Army guy might only get six months of school for E.O.D., our guys get up to 14 months of school when you start adding on the diving and the jumping and the advanced skills." "[Helicopter blades whirring]" "Narrator:" "The special-ops unit flies in first, by helicopter." "They set up security on the outskirts of the village and wait for the E.O.D. Team to arrive." "Soldier:" "We're gonna line up right here." "They're gonna come in and land, and they're gonna come to us." "They're gonna intermix with the group, and then they patrol into the Afghan village." "Narrator:" "With the landing site secured, the eight-man E.O.D. Team moves out." "To be certified for war, the team has to operate with precision." "About to load up on that helo, dismount, move on to our target location, take down a village." "We're gonna go move into SSE after the village is cleared." "SSE is "sensitive site exploitation."" "It's one of our jobs." "O'Connor:" "The evolution that E.O.D.'s made over the last six years is incredible, because now we've got real-life situations that these guys have lived through and you push on that knowledge to the other guys so we can keep building our experiences" "and make us be the best mobile-E.O.D. Unit in the world." "Narrator:" "Black Hawks insert the E.O.D. Team just outside the target location." "Soldier:" "X-ray 1, just meet us up here on the road." "Soldier ♪2:" "Copy." "On our way to you." "Narrator:" "They link up with the assault force, and together, the two units move toward the enemy village." "They have no idea what they'll face when they get there." "The operation is highly sensitive because the suspected I.E.D. Factory is in a populated village." "It's imperative that no civilians are killed." "Because of the explosives threat, E.O.D. Takes the lead." "They plan to go in soft, meaning no firepower unless absolutely necessary." "How E.O.D. 1 handles the deadly threats inside will determine whether the entire team passes or fails." "[Indistinct shouting]" "Soldier:" "Get down on the ground." "Narrator:" "Middle-eastern role players familiar with both language and culture make the situation as real as possible." "Soldier ♪2:" "Down." "Down." "It's pitch-black inside the village." "The assault team struggles to round up and control the locals." "[Men speaking native language]" "Everybody, get down!" "Get down!" "Quiet!" "Quiet!" "Quiet!" "Narrator:" "The situation is tense." "There's a language barrier and mounting chaos." "The team has no idea who's friendly and who's not." "[Men speaking native language]" "Quiet!" "Narrator:" "Eventually, they gather all of the villagers without firing a single shot." "All the rear line clear." "Calm!" "Shh!" "Narrator:" "While the civilians are moved to the rear of the village, the assault team sets up a defensive perimeter in case of attack." "E.O.D. Breaks into two-man teams to start their search." "In complete darkness, they use night optics and infrared lights invisible to the naked eye." "I'm gonna go in here." "Stay at the door." "We're good." "All right." "Clear." "Remove those doors." "Soldier:" "Hey, Jimmy." "Yo." "Right here." "You guys want this thing?" "Lyon:" "It's crazy." "The guys are going into a situation where they have no idea what's around the next corner." "We try to induce that through the stress and through the drills to make sure that they get it." " Yo, Dave." " Yo." "What do you got?" "Hey, man." "Don't touch anything." "Did you look in the other one?" "No, I just opened that one." "I saw it and called you guys." "Good call." "Narrator:" "Right away, the E.O.D. Teams find explosives all over the village." "It's a stockpile." "But so far, they've found no devices rigged with detonators." "Soldier:" "Hey, X-ray 1, it's X-ray 3." "Suddenly, the game changes." "A member of the assault team stands frozen in a doorway." "He believes he's touching a tripwire." "If he moves, he's dead." "E.O.D. Goes to work." "Stay where you're at." "Lieutenant Snyder locates the trigger behind the door frame... [bleep] glasses on." "And renders it safe." "The soldier is in one piece, but the threat level has just skyrocketed." "All right." "Moving up, moving up." "A booby trap confirms enemy are in the village and that the entire village may be rigged to explode." "Meanwhile, E.O.D. Is told by a local that explosives are hidden inside a mosque." "It's a sensitive situation." "Snyder:" "Did you understand what he said?" "Soldier:" "With all the booby traps, all the E.F.P. S and [bleep] Let's see if we can get in here." " Okay." " All right." "Bald Eagle, this is X-ray 1." "Narrator:" "The team must radio their commanding officer for permission to search a religious structure." "We've already found E.F.P. S and booby traps in this village." "We request permission to prosecute the mosque because of probable cause." "How copy?" "All right." "We got permission." "I got you." "I got you." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. Goes to work on the mosque, searching for another stockpile." "Hey, X-ray 1, we got two trapdoors in here." "Narrator:" "Team leader Lieutenant Snyder consults a satellite image of the village to gauge the mission's progress so far." "That's clear." "Mosque is being prosecuted right now?" "Did you find anything in any of these buildings?" "Yeah." "Oh, yeah." "I found some [bleep] up high up in here." "There was a booby trap up high, RPG up top." "Anything live, like a booby trap?" "Oh, yeah." "Yeah." "There was a pressure plate under the mat." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1's top priority is also their most dangerous... find and disarm any remaining booby traps." "They're close to wrapping up the mission." "But not as close as they think." "It's now Day 2 of their four-day final-certification course at Fort Story, Virginia." "Pass and they ship out immediately." "Fail and the team is broken up and sent back to training." "Soldier:" "We're gonna take this one with us." "Soldier ♪2:" "Take this one?" "We're gonna destroy that one, save that one." "Narrator:" "While some E.O.D. Operatives work to render various explosives safe, others search for any remaining booby traps... the most dangerous part of their job." "Have we cleared all of the booby traps in all these houses?" "I'm just gonna start at one end and check at the other." "Okay." "Narrator:" "Two members of E.O.D. 1 move to a guard tower near the front of the village." "They head up the outside staircase as the assault team provides security." "A team member notices a wire." "[Explosion]" "[Bleep]" "It's the sound nobody wants to hear." "Okay." "They spotted one booby trap and moved to disarm it." "But in the process, they set off a second one." "A one-second mistake, and two of E.O.D.'s men are dead." "You want to take her on, you can." "When that guy tripped that wire, we know how bad it hurt." "We don't need to say anything at that point." "That is enough for that E.O.D. Guy to know" ""I screwed up, and I might have taken my buddy with me."" "We know coming in here that nothing's gonna kill us." "But having that cap go off needs to ring a bell in your head, and it's important for all the guys, and we stress it with all our new guys, as well... don't take that lightly." " Get out!" " Get out!" "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 is now down to six men, but the operation must continue, just as it would in combat." "Soldier:" "Can we bring vehicles to our current location?" "If we can get vehicles, we can transport all these weapons." "Otherwise, we got to leave them here and blow them up." "Narrator:" "With a major failure hanging over them, the E.O.D. Team must finish the mission quickly and without further mistakes." "Confident they have found every device, they set charges on the explosives and prepare to clear the village." "Every second, the chances of an enemy attack increase." "I want all these taken up to that point where we were collecting all the weapons." "I need you to be done and ready to pop smoke in less than five minutes." " Can you do that?" " Yeah." "Narrator:" "Then, in the midst of an emotional low, all hell breaks loose." "[Soldier shouts indistinctly]" "[Machine-gun fire]" "The village is attacked while explosives are still being wired to detonate." "E.O.D. Must finish their work under hostile fire while the assault team defends the compound." "Hey, we got to go!" " Hey, you guys got demo on you?" " Yeah." "Start rigging that [bleep] Right now." "All right." "[Gunfire continues]" "Snyder:" "Let's go, E.O.D.!" "We got to get the [bleep] out of here!" "Get your six out." "Move this [bleep] bench." "And I'm gonna start handing you ordnance, all right?" "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 is now under as much pressure as the instructors can put on them." "In cramped quarters, under enemy fire, they need to finish the job now." "But there can be no short cuts." "They must destroy every bomb the enemy could use." "E.O.D., you need to move." "Armored Humvees are ready to roll." "It's time to blow up the bomb-making labs and get out of the area." "[Gunfire continues]" "With demo set to go," "E.O.D. Activates timed fuses on the charges and quickly clears the area." "Soldier:" "3... 2... 1..." "Mark." "[Explosion]" " Got to go." " We got smoke." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 successfully destroyed the explosives." "Front gate." "But as the men head home, it's the tripped booby trap that weighs on their minds." "They all know a mistake like that could cost them their certification here." "And at war, it will cost them their lives." "It's those lessons that are learned that ingrain that in your mind not to make those mistakes again." "It hits you deep, and you think about that after the drill." "You think about that through the night." "Sometimes you lay awake at night and you think about that, because had that been the real deal, it'd be over." "Narrator:" "But they can't let the pressure get to them." "Their next mission will be just as demanding and even more urgent." "[Soldier screaming]" "A man is down, and E.O.D. 1 is his only hope of survival." "We're on the way, buddy." "Hang in there." "[Screaming continues]" "Narrator:" "Day 3 at Navy E.O.D. Final certification." "E.O.D. 1's unit has split into two-man teams." "O'Connor and Masur are on their way to help an assault unit that's stumbled onto an explosives stash." "The two bomb specialists must parachute in and neutralize the threat." "O'Connor:" "For me, the hardest day is always those days where it's everything compiled into one." "The jump days certainly were." "Packing that in and trying to decipher, you know, what do I need to take for this mission?" "I can't take everything." "So what has my intel driven me for?" "What should I take?" "And then you're on to a full-on mission where the [bleep] Gonna hit the fan again." "Instructor:" "Jumpers, to the side!" "Jumper, go!" "Move!" "Narrator:" "Military parachutes are designed to drop fast." "Where you're put out is where you land." "But a sudden shift in wind can change everything." "O'Connor:" "Oh [bleep]" "O'Connor is headed for the trees, and there's nothing he can do about it." "[Bleep]" "[Groans]" "O'Connor:" "Those are certainly moments that you look back on, and you say," ""I don't want to ever have that experience again."" "But those things happen." "You get up, and you press on." "You still have a mission to do, and you can't sit there and cry like a baby." "You get up and shake yourself off and move on." "Narrator:" "O'Connor and Masur quickly rendezvous with a member of the assault unit..." "Rock 'n' roll." "Let's do this." "And the three men advance together toward the reported explosives find." "Heading into our target area with the weapons cache." "Something's going on." "We got an I.E.D. Maker that we're going after right now." "Narrator:" "But as E.O.D. Gets closer to the target, the mission changes dramatically." "[Explosion]" "[Soldier screaming]" "Someone has just tripped a wire." "[Screaming continues]" "Man down." "Where are we going?" "Where are we going?" "Let's go." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. Has just gone from bomb squad to emergency medics." "O'Connor:" "You can think it's gonna be one way, and the next thing you know, you're out to go rescue someone." "And those situations change." "It's rough, and guys hate it, but it's necessary." "[Screaming continues]" "Narrator:" "When a soldier trips an explosive, everyone around him has to pull back." "Since there may be more explosives in the area, only E.O.D. Can approach." "It's gonna be all right!" "Settle down!" "Relax!" "The victim's unit can only wait for E.O.D." "While their injured buddy screams in pain." "O'Connor and Masur reach the scene and take over." "You got a man down?" "Yeah, we pushed a man out for security, had an explosion go off." "We think it's a possible mine strike." "Remind me the way you guys came in here." "Roger." "This is the route you took, correct?" "Narrator:" "E.O.D. Will go in as far as they can, using only paths that have already been walked on." "Nothing else is safe." "The area is littered with live mines." "O'Connor:" "This is where you stopped?" "Soldier:" "This is where I stopped." "Where's his location from here?" "Around the corner?" "Appro ximately 10 meters to that front." "Get the... out." "Narrator:" "Using a highly sensitive detector," "E.O.D. Must find a way through the mine field to the victim without setting off any more explosives." "Get me out of here!" "It's as dangerous as any operation they'll see in Iraq or Afghanistan." "O'Connor:" "We're with you, brother, all the way!" "[Soldier sobbing, screaming]" "Narrator:" "With a man dying just yards away, it's tempting to move fast." "But that's when more men die." "We're coming." "Nobody's went through this path?" "No." "Just him, right through here." "He's the last man, the man that's down." " We pushed him out." " Let's go." " Push straight through." " Move through." "Move through." "Narrator:" "On this mission, O'Connor and Masur are graded not only on their ability to handle explosives..." "Right behind you." "But also on their performance as first responders to a medical emergency." "An E.O.D. Medical instructor watches their every move." "What I'm looking for is for them to come in tactically, for them to address his wounds most severe, triage him, do some type of blood agent to stop his major bleeding, do a rapid head-to-toe assessment," "and get him out of here as quick as possible." "[Soldier sobbing, screaming]" "Right behind you." "We're with you, brother." "We're on the way." "We're on the way, brother." "As soon as we get close enough, you got to get a tourniquet on this dude, man." "We're coming, bro." "Right here, man." "What we have here is, we have a mine-strike drill." "So what the guys will do is, they'll send one guy in first, and he will mark it so that the team can come up effectively and not set any additional mines off." "I got this one." "Go ahead." "I got it." "He'll evaluate the patient, treat him the best he can, get him up so when he's ready to move out, the second guy will have marked a quick pathway to maneuver him out." "And they'll finish treatment in a safe area." "Narrator:" "O'Connor and Masur find the area packed with mines." "For now, they mark them so they can avoid detonation." "Disarming them will come after the injured man is rescued." "O'Connor:" "Let me up to that leg so I can get a tourniquet on him." "I'm right here with you, brother." "Hang in there, man." "Narrator:" "O'Connor goes to work while Masur continues to look for mines." "I'll put some pressure on your femoral artery right here, all right?" "Stay with me." "Masur:" "You got a blowout kit?" "All right." "I got pressure on his wound." "[Groaning]" "Hang with me, all right?" "[Soldier gagging]" "Hang with me." "Open his airway." "Make sure his airway's open." "Turn his head to the side." "Make sure his vomit goes down to the side." "We got another one right there." "Narrator:" "Masur finds a land mine just inches from the victim's head." "They mark it and work carefully around it." "Where's L.Z. Gonna be at?" "L.Z.'s gonna be straight ahead there." "I'm gonna go ahead and clear out the L.Z." "Go mark it." "Soldier: [bleep]" "We're with you, brother." "[Groaning]" "Here." "Put this lollipop in your mouth for now." "Open your mouth." "Narrator:" "O'Connor sedates the victim then prepares to move him out." "Their pain control is fentanyl lollipops." "So he can suck on it until he ends up passing out or the pain is relieved." "Hang in there, brother." "Keep sucking that lollipop." "You'll be all right, man." "Narrator:" "Masur pops smoke to signal for a medical-support team to move in." "Nice and easy." "All right, brother." "[Groaning continues]" "Go ahead." "We're gonna take him out." "1, 2, 3." "Narrator:" "At last, stepping only where they know it's safe, they move the victim." "Lawrence:" "When they got to their victim, they addressed all the major bleeding and pain control, and they got him out of the situation fast, effective." "So that's what we're looking for." "Narrator:" "Their mission accomplished," "O'Connor and Masur meet the rest of E.O.D. 1 back at headquarters." "There's now just one mission left." "It will be their hardest yet." "Their orders... parachute out at sea, come ashore, and take down a major bunker complex." "Expect hostages, chaos, and extreme danger." "Day 4 of final certification." "The eight members of E.O.D. 1 have just been handed a highly complex mission... a multi-stage operation that will exploit nearly every aspect of their training." "The stakes are extremely high." "Today will determine whether the team is ready to ship out to combat or not." "The mission..." "parachute two miles out at sea with an inflatable zodiac, then move on to land to locate a complex underground bunker system." "Inside are American hostages and tons of deadly explosives." "Snyder:" "Right now, we're doing an over-the-beach transfer." "We're jumping in static-line off of a C-17 with what we call a duck... it's a boat that's gonna run off the ramp on a parachute." "Once the boat's in the water, we're gonna motor on in." "From there, we're gonna infil to a possible hostage scenario." "It's a multifaceted operation." "You got to kind of keep shifting gears, keep shifting your mental focus as to what your current threat is." "It'll be a long day, and it'll be trying as far as the threats, and the challenges change every hour or so." "So it'll be interesting." "Narrator:" "The challenges start before the mission even gets of the ground." "Air operations are unpredictable, and a delay has left the team waiting on the tarmac for over six hours." "By the time they can load up, each man has been roasting for hours in 95-degree heat wearing a wet suit and full combat equipment." "O'Connor:" "The dehydration factors." "You don't really feel like you're losing the water." "You know, you're wearing a wet suit." "The heat's coming." "You don't really feel like it's kicking in." "And then, all of a sudden, it just knocks you out." "Soldier:" "I don't know about you, but I'm kind of tired." "Instructor:" "Move it!" "[All speaking indistinctly]" "Narrator:" "On board, the men prepare for the jump." "Tell them to get in position, like, ASAP." "Narrator:" "Down at the drop zone, instructors wait in boats and on the beach, observing every facet of the mission." "As the C-17 approaches, the instructors don't like what they see." "Basco 5-1, this is E.O.D. D.Z." "I don't like it." "I think we're too tight." "Narrator:" "High winds and nearby ships lead instructors to call for a change in the drop plan." "If you took that run-in that you got right now and head a little bit southwest, that would work." "Narrator:" "The C-17 circles around for a new approach as the team members on board are stuck waiting again." "At this point, all I want is out of the [bleep] plane." "Narrator:" "First out is the zodiac, packed with 500 pounds of equipment." "Snyder:" "You wait around, wait around, wait around, wait around, and then, all of a sudden, it was like you have to be able to think clearly and quickly in an instant." "Basco 5-1, that was beautiful." "Nice drop." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 gets the jump signal and exits the C-17 aircraft at 1,200 feet." "Instructor:" "Go!" "Basco 5-1, this is E.O.D. D.Z. I've got eight canopies." "Snyder:" "All of a sudden, I'm in the air." "I'm looking around." "Don't want to hit anyone." "We're going over the barge." "I got to get in the water, get the harness off, get my fins on so I can swim away." "Narrator:" "Dropped into 55-degree water, each man struggles to release his chute and quickly link up on the zodiac." "Once on board, they swiftly motor towards shore." "11 hours into the mission, E.O.D. 1 secures the beach." "Next, they begin a 5-mile trek through dense vegetation to the hostage location." "Despite dehydration and physical exhaustion, the men have to maintain focus." "After 12 long hours, the real work is just beginning." "Inside the bunker is a device unlike anything they've ever seen before." "It's the last day of E.O.D. 1's 4-day, final-certification test." "12 hours into a grueling, ocean-to-land mission," "E.O.D. 1 arrives outside a massive underground bunker." "They've been called in to help an army unit stopped dead in their tracks by the discovery of explosives." "They immediately begin gathering information." "Okay." "Roger." "You got the rooms marked?" "Narrator:" "Inside the pitch-black bunker are two American hostages with I.E.D. S strapped to their bodies, and the entire complex is booby-trapped." "Be advised, we have two confirmed hostages, two confirmed hostages." "They are marked with chem lights." "There's also a device at the door, as well as a second device inside the building." "Copy." "Soldier:" "They're reporting a black... it looks like a pressure strip." "They know there's a swinging trip line and then some other red wires on the other side." "Roger." "Make sure they stay in place, don't [bleep] with it, and do not move at all." "Roger." "Narrator:" "Six E.O.D. Men head into the bunker to deal with the hostages and the I.E.D.s." "Right away, they encounter a hostage rigged with explosives." "Soldier:" "Well, we're gonna get you out of here, man." "I just need you to stay calm." "Narrator:" "A second hostage is also located, but he's injured and in a full state of panic." "This final scenario is highly classified." "A new kind of bomb E.O.D. 1 has never seen before must be disarmed as fast as possible." "Unfortunately, the cameras can't go in there." "They can't see the tactics and techniques and procedures we're doing." "And that's due to two things." "The first is, the environment is changing over in Iraq and Afghanistan." "The second one is, if we have a guy coming through and we know he's seen certain types of scenarios, we're gonna push him and test him in a different way." "We don't want those guys to see the same thing over and over again, 'cause they won't be ready for combat." "Narrator:" "The team members inside the bunker have their hands full as they work to disarm each I.E.D." "Meanwhile, the two E.O.D. Men outside the bunker are led to a grim discovery." "It is an I.R.L..." "Improvised rocket launcher." "The I.R.L. Is actually pointed directly at the entrance to that door." "Security found it." "They requested E.O.D. To go and take care of it." "Commonly found in Iraq." "Narrator:" "They suspect the rocket launcher is rigged to detonate by triggers in the bunker." "With members of their squad working inside in total darkness, the pressure is on to get the I.R.L. Disarmed immediately." "Fired into the enclosed space of the bunker, a single rocket could have a devastating effect on everyone inside." "A fatal mistake here, and the entire team will not be certified." "This job just doesn't have any room for error." "And so you take a guy that's at the 90% level, and you're trying to get him to that 100% level." "The guys that are at the 80% level, they're not even here." "They never made it through school." "So it's just such a fine line." "You cannot afford to make a mistake with explosives, not ever." "Roger." "Stand by for remote pull." "Narrator:" "Using techniques that are classified, the team inside the bunker has successfully freed both hostages." "The rocket launcher outside is carefully rendered safe." "Get ready." "I'm gonna do it." "O'Connor:" "We had a successful remote pull." "We're gonna place this charge now." " Gonna blow it now?" " Not now." "We're gonna place a charge and have it ready to go." "On "X," though, we're gonna pop it." "Roger that." "Narrator:" "E.O.D. 1 has completed its last mission, and final certification is almost over." "Soon, the team will learn if they've passed or failed." "Wheeler:" "This kind of training brings it all together, especially with all the role players and the assets that you see." "It makes it as realistic as it can be for guys that haven't seen it done the way it's supposed to, so they get the picture and they're not showing up boots on the ground, like, you know, in awe of everything that's going on." "Snyder:" "Our team did awesome." "We have a stellar group of guys." "Our newer guys are soaking stuff up like sponges, and then the other leadership have so much experience and so much knowledge that it's really just feeding down." "And it's an honor to work with such a group of squared-away guys." "It really makes being the boss pretty easy." "Narrator:" "Throughout their final four-day certification," "E.O.D. 1 demonstrated a high level of tactical skill, as well as a clear ability to adapt to urgent and volatile situations." "Lyon:" "They made mistakes and stumbled, but what really we like to see is they come back from that." "And at the end of it, they really get it." "They've built the confidence." "And when they walk out that door, we know that guy has a great chance of coming back alive." "And this team absolutely did that." "They came together as a team, gelled, and they are ready to do any mission, anywhere, anytime." "Narrator:" "After a long and trying four days, the eight-man E.O.D. Unit is cleared for deployment." "They'll attach to a special-operations unit and ship out immediately to a war zone." "This is gonna be my first deployment, but we have pretty good leadership, you know?" "Everybody that I work under is experienced, and I trust them." "So yeah, I feel we're on the right track for deployment." "Narrator:" "The next time they disarm an I.E.D., it will be the real thing." "O'Connor:" "My main mission is to get my men back safely." "We're a tight team, and we do a dangerous job." "The most important thing is to make sure, as myself, as a leader, to get these men back so they can be with their families and do their jobs successfully."