Lt. Alex Burtness: I've pretty much been taking things apart as long as I can remember. I was always interested in science and technology and I found pursuits that linked up well with that. I think, looking back, the path to where I am today is very clear, finding the challenges that fit with who I am and what I valued and what I was skilled at, I think it all makes sense. I'm exactly where I need to be.

 

In high school, I always sort of picked my schedule more around all the advanced science courses. I did programming. I did some robotics things that my high school offered. With robotics, math is a way to describe the way that everything moves and interacts, and for me, that was fascinating. It sort of sparked that interest that, you know, led me down this very long path to bring me to where I am today.

 

I found out about the service academies, particularly the Naval Academy, and I think I saw the challenge of it and that's what really appealed to me. I got rejected from the Naval Academy the first time that I applied. I remember people saying that normal kids from high school can't just go to a service academy, and I decided that I needed to prove them wrong.

 

Jessica Burtness: Alex doesn't choose the easy way. He doesn't shy away from challenges. His parents are both really hard-working people. They have a very strong work ethic. I think that definitely shows in Alex.

 

Alex: I think getting that rejection just really focused me and really showed me that maybe what I was doing up until that point and the effort that I've been putting in wasn't sufficient. So, I spent a year at Oregon State. I worked very, very hard, there. I focused every day on doing the best that I could so that I could put in a stronger application at the Naval Academy, and they recognized that and I got in the second time around.

 

The excitement of graduation, definitely a moment that I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life. There was literally just a buzz in the air and people were just agitated in their seats, just waiting to throw their hats in the air and to be commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the Marine Corps and Ensigns in the Navy. It was incredibly exciting and incredibly rewarding to know that that four years of very hard work had paid off.

 

When you're younger, the need to overcome challenges has a lot to do with proving something to yourself, and as you get older, and in particular, as you get into leadership roles as a Naval Officer, it has a lot more to do with not letting your guys down.

 

Petty Officer 3rd Class Andy Dixon: I can still remember mornings in dive school. Sometimes you wake up and we might have had a hard day before, he would definitely just kind of boost morale, it seems like, every time he walked in the room.

 

Ensign Ian McDonough: Our job as explosive ordnance disposal technicians is to render safe explosive ordnance for civilian and military personnel all around the world.

 

Alex: So, ultimately, all of our training and our mobility skills -- whether it's diving or jumping or shooting, everything that we do revolves around getting us to an IED or piece of ordnance that we can take care of.

 

Chief Petty Officer David Lambert: His knowledge of technology helps by bringing a new perspective to what we already have. His new tools, the robots, the technology that keeps growing within our community, they're able to bring new ideas to the table.

 

Alex: Ultimately, getting distance from a piece of ordnance is the number one thing you can do as an EOD technician to make yourself safe. So, when you're working out of the back of our vehicles, you can send a robot downrange rather than putting somebody in a bomb suit. They've got grippers so we can tear through things. We can dig through things. We can place charges if we need to. We'll use robots to investigate IEDs or suspicious packages. Over the past 10 years, it's been an exceptionally useful tool that's saved the lives of a lot of EOD technicians. In addition to that, we have another set of robots that we use for underwater missions.

 

What the Military provides you the opportunity for as an engineer is really just the opportunity to use your technical and analytical skills in a hands-on way that you wouldn't be able to anywhere else. You can use your knowledge and skills to honestly say that you're making people safe, that you're saving lives. That was a big part of what drew me to the Naval Academy, drew me to engineering, graduate school, dive school, EOD school. It was sort of always finding the challenges and finding the challenges that fit with who I am and what I valued and what I was skilled at. The way that you look at the world and the way you approach problems, I think that you come to it subconsciously. I never thought of myself as an engineer until I realized that I've been one all along.

Alex: SPIE is a Special Patrol Insertion Extraction. So it's a technique where a helicopter will lower a long line down to the team on the ground. They will be wearing harnesses and will clip into that line, and then the helicopter will take off, and we'll dangle below the helicopter as he flies us to wherever we need to go, and lowers us back down. So it's a technique when you don't have the room for a helicopter to land safely. You can just lower a rope down and get the team in or out as needed.

 

Lt. Christopher Williams: It's both over-land and over-water training we're conducting. The fast rope is specifically to insert troops very rapidly without having to land. So it's something we could do to the top of a building, onto a boat if we did it over water.

 

Alex: So we use fast roping for a lot of different missions. We'll be up in the helicopter. You grab onto the rope and just slide down like a fireman's pole.

 

Christopher: For the over-water stuff, it's typically something we use to insert them, let's say, 50 miles off the coast somewhere. And we can drop them off in the water, and they can covertly enter the beach line and go execute some mission to a target.

 

Alex: So ultimately, whether it's diving, or jumping, or shooting, everything that we do revolves around getting us to an IED or a piece of ordnance, that we can take care of it.

Ian: To be a good EOD officer definitely takes a belief in the value of our job and what we do, and a commitment to those you work for and those you work with.  It's important to have integrity and dedication, and a sense of strong personal motivation to be successful, and -- as an EOD technician, and also as a naval officer.

 

Rusty:  Because of the nature of our work, the stress levels will always be increasing.  And the officers need to be the ones especially to keep their heads on a swivel, and to keep calm, to be able to make the decisions that need to be made.

 

Ian:  Trust is an important part of our job as EOD technicians, because we have to be able to trust the people that we work with to do our job, and to do their job as well.

 

David:  A good reason to become an EOD officer, I believe, is first and foremost the men and women that you work with.  You get the cream of the crop, really, within this community.  And to be able to lead those type of people, I don't know if anybody would want to do anything else, really.

 

Ian:  I think Lieutenant Burtness is a great EOD officer.  He certainly looks out for those he works with.  He has a high standard that he demands of all of us, but he sets that standard, and he leads from the front.

 

Rusty: I feel that the whole team learns from Lieutenant Burtness, just in his example of leadership, and his work ethic.  We get a real good sense that he is always taking care of us.

 

Alex: Obviously, the work that we do as explosive ordinance disposal technicians is extremely important, and that's the draw that gets people into the community. But I think the most rewarding part is just the people that you get to work with on a day-to-day basis, and the caliber of people that you get to engage with. I think that's really unique.  It's unique in the Military, and it's unique in general, just working with the level of people that you work with every day.