Sergeant Charlotte
Sergeant Charlotte. Photo credit: French Air & Space Force
Sometimes parents don't realize that the news on TV can have a strong impression on their young children and even determine their career path. This is what happened to Charlotte, struck as a small child by images of the Gulf War and today a bomb disposal expert. “I really think it was these images that made me decide to join the military. Anyway, I don't remember ever wanting to do anything other than being in the military,” she says with a quick smile.
And then, when she was in year 10 of secondary school (9th grade in the USA), Charlotte paid a neighbourly visit to the Tours Air Base during an Open House. One stand particularly caught the young girl's imagination: the bomb disposal experts, known in France as NEDEX (neutralisation, enlèvement, destruction des explosifs). Or, as Charlotte says with a charming French accent when she pronounces the English words, “to use NATO terminology, I am an EOD, explosive ordnance disposal.”
““A man’s life is worth no less than a woman’s. We are all serving under the same flag””
The EODs on the stand must have been very convincing because from that moment “I was determined that this was the job for me.”
The desire to make herself useful to others is strongly rooted in this thoughtful, calm, diplomatic and foresightful young woman. At 16 she was a volunteer firefighter, then as soon as she could, at 18 and still at school, she joined the Air Force reserves “during my school holidays and to make sure that my choice of a career in the armed forces was the right one.” She had already chosen her baccalaureate with her future profession in mind. “I was advised that taking an IST (industrial science and technology) baccalaureate in production would be wise to properly prepare for the entrance examination to the Air Force NCOs school in Rochefort.”
Sergeant Charlotte finishing up after an exercise. Photo credit: French Air & Space Force.
In this school, future NCOs (non-commissioned officers) are admitted according to the specialty that they intend to take up. For Charlotte, in 2009, it was as a gunsmith because you have to have done this job for two years before you can apply for EOD training. “We all do our military classes together for four and a half months and then every one moves on to specialise.” For Charlotte this was on site in Rochefort.
While waiting to be able to apply for the EOD training which takes place in Angers at the PIAM, Pôle Interarmées Munex, under the direction of the École du Génie, Charlotte spent two years in charge of ground/air ammunition at the Mont-de-Marsan Air Base 118. And then she applied. She passed a psychological interview, psychotechnical tests, succeeded in the simulation exercises. Are there specific personalities for this very particular job? According to Charlotte, “You need to be calm, thoughtful, adaptable and constantly call yourself into question. You must not rest on what you have learned and above all you must not be over-confident.”
Just under 60 people are currently EODs in the French Air & Space Force. “I am the latest arrival of the three EOD women,” she smiles. To do this job you need to be physically fit, she concedes, because the bomb suit weighs 40 kg and the equipment she has to carry “weighs around 10 kilos.” But it's mostly the 7kg helmet that Charlotte finds heavy. This Kevlar outfit protects her from the blast of a one kilo charge exploding one metre away. The EODs remain bare-handed, however, because they have to have all their dexterity to be able to dismantle a bomb.
Today, faced with a suspicious package, the bomb disposal experts can first activate a small robot that sends them images, and might even X-ray the object. “It doesn't tell us what chemicals are in the object, but it allows us to try and figure out how the trigger system works,” she explains. They also have jamming systems at their disposal to prevent the bomb from being set off remotely (by a cell phone, for example) as they approach it.
EODs always work in pairs. “Number 1 is the dismantler while number 2 prepares the equipment and holds a thoughtful discussion with number 1 as to the best approach.” Charlotte explains that EODs “don't all work the same way,” so it's helpful to have these dialogues.
This modest young woman thinks she does not yet have enough experience to become an instructor but finds the idea “pleasant”.
Charlotte training in full protection gear. Photo credit: French Air & Space Force
Today, 12 years after starting her career, Charlotte is at General Staff where she manages the logistics part of EOD equipment. To reach this stage she successfully passed seven internships between 2012 and 2014 which combine theory and field practice, the last of which, seven weeks long, was on “chemical ammunition and dirty packages”, i.e. packages that contain poisons such as the sarin gas used in the Tokyo metro terrorist attack on March 20, 1995 in which 13 people died and over 6,300 were wounded.
These internships “are not given,” she says. You have to be ready to “work really hard” and “be very studious” because “there is a lot to learn”. She’s forgotten a little today but there was a time when she knew all the ordnance manufactured by every country in the world since WWII!! “You have to be able to recognize where ordnance comes from,” she explains.
We talk about the risks of the profession. Charlotte points out that “whether you’re male or female it’s exactly the same, you’re first and foremost military and a man’s life is worth no less than a woman’s. We are all serving under the same flag.”
