Two Incirlik Airmen awarded Bronze Star Medals

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Raymond Hoy
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Two Incirlik Airmen were awarded Bronze Star Medals in ceremonies May 29 and June 2. 

Tech. Sgt. Neil Newman and Senior Master Sgt. William Eaton, both 39th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal technicians, were awarded the medals for deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

Sergeant Newman was deployed to Kirkuk Regional Air Base, Iraq, from Oct. 16, 2008 to April 24. He was deployed as the team leader of a three-person EOD team. 

"We were in charge of clearing [improvised explosive devices] on all of the routes between the different forward operating bases in our area," Sergeant Newman, a 16-year EOD veteran, said. "We would convoy between FOBs looking for anything suspicious such as things that looked out of place, wires protruding from the ground; that sort of thing." 

One of those routine sweeps became not-so-routine Oct. 29, a short time after he arrived in Iraq. His team was three hours into a 15-hour patrol when his team discovered an IED on one of the major supply routes. While Sergeant Newman was clearing the site, he noticed a set of wires protruding from the ground five feet away from him. 

The item was a secondary device intended to harm first-responders. These devices are usually set to explode several minutes after the first explosion while first-responders are in the area helping the injured. 

"You pretty much just go off of instinct at that point," Sergeant Newman said. "We had a job to do. I thought I had taken care of the first problem, and then I just had another problem come up. So we had to push everybody back and take care of that problem." 

In another harrowing moment, Sergeant Newman and his team were struck by the detonation of an IED while on another route-clearing mission. 

"The first thing you think of is, 'is my team OK?'" Sergeant Newman said. "It's instant chaos because everyone is trying to find out if everyone's OK and what's going on. After that, we started assessing the damage." 

"That was actually the first of 15 IED hits my team took during the deployment," he added.
Sergeant Eaton, a 24-year EOD veteran, was the superintendant of the EOD flight at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, from April 20 - Oct. 19, 2008. 

"The most challenging part of being a superintendent of an EOD flight was knowing my teams were going outside the wire everyday conducting operations against IEDs, which are the number one killer of servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. 

Sergeant Eaton was in charge of 30 EOD technicians during his deployment. His focus on his deployment wasn't just on bombs, but on his people. 

"My biggest challenge was keeping them focused," Sergeant Eaton said. "After the teams have been there awhile, they can become complacent. We had to make it so every time they went outside the wire was like their first mission." 

And that couldn't be done behind a desk. Sergeant Eaton made several trips "outside the wire" to observe his EOD technicians firsthand. 

"We would come out with them on missions to make sure they understood we were there for them while ensuring they were keeping on their toes," Sergeant Eaton said. "Ultimately, I wanted to make sure my people were safe. EOD technicians are put in harm's way all the time; that's our job. I was there to ensure they were doing what's necessary to come home unharmed."