Reverse Unboxing, Ep 6: Eric, Explosive Ordinance School
Episode 6 this week is code named SHORT FUSE, because the crate full of awesome is heading to Eric as a part of the Air Force’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) School out in lovely Utah. For those of you who don’t “habla”, EOD is better known by the moniker, “Bomb Squad”. They have the unhappy job of having to tinker with homemade explosive devices that insurgents staple and duct tape together along the sides of roads in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the school at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, these guys learn the trade of handling and disposing of explosive devices. So, yes, it’s absolutely critical that these airmen remain happy and focused on their job.
Here is Eric’s request:
I’m the Superintendent for an Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal team stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. We have several members, including myself, that have deployed numerous times to Iraq for OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom), and Afghanistan for OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom). We have a resiliency program in place and receive quarterly briefings from our health and wellness, medical, and mental health associates. As part of our program we have wingman days, safety down days, and team building activities. Our group commander found the article about your organization on CNBC and sent me the link with the thought “consider this as another vantage on resiliency”. It is not uncommon in our shop to have 3 or 4 dogs wandering around the building wanting to play fetch or begging for a good belly rub. Our leadership is very supportive of any efforts to help our Airmen cope with the experiences they have been exposed to in deployed environments while performing their EOD duties. While it appears your focus is on deployed units, I wondered if there is an opportunity or capability to provide similar services to home station units? Over the years unit members have donated their old gaming systems and library of games to the shop as they transfer units or buy new personal systems. After duty hours, and sometimes during lunch and on weekends, groups of technicians will congregate and play video games. It helps relieve a lot of tension, provides a temporary escape from the small stressors that can build up, and it can boost morale. A lot of use (on already well seasoned older systems) means that controllers, consoles, and games are outdated and in poor working order. Is there any possibility of a system “update” through your organization? Many of the unit members have personal units at home, but having a dependable and current system here at the shop could be useful on those days when playing fetch with Fido just isn’t doing the trick…With our regular operational tempo, it’s only a matter of time before we are deployed or assigned to a unit that has benefited from your services and we look forward to playing some games. Thanks Stack-Up!
And here’s what we sent Eric at the schoolhouse in Utah!
Big thanks to all our supporters and sponsors, including Ubisoft, Humble Bundle, Deep Silver, EA, Microsoft, Game Informer, Turtle Rock Studios, and our t-shirt providers at A2Z Emblems from New Jersey.
This week, we just want to say thank you for all the help from our allies at the Twitch streaming team Playing with Fire and indie publisher/developer tinyBuild; Playing with Fire’s 72 hour livestream event last weekend brought in just over $10,000, which will go a long way into helping us build out more of these supply crates for troops!
Also, want to take some time out to thank new supporters as listed in the video, Pivothead, that provided the video camera glasses for the shoot.
If you’d like to make a donation that gets highlighted in one of our videos, Stack-Up takes lightly used PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games and gear as well as cash donations. Please help us help these vets out here:
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