SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 – A Kentucky Air National Guard Airman recently earned the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for outstanding performance while attending the U.S. Navy’s explosive ordnance disposal school.
Airman 1st Class Barrett Darlington, an EOD specialist assigned to the Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight here, completed 143 academic training days and more than 30 tests during an initial Air Force class and follow-on Navy course without a single failure. He completed the training as a distinguished graduate with a final score of 96.2 percent.
Darlington said the Air Force course has a washout rate of 66%, and most students experience one or more test failures. The eight-month Navy course has a 33% failure rate.
During the 30-day Air Force class, Darlington said he was instructed and tested on a “firehose of information” on things such as the history of EOD, theories of explosives and their effects, and ordnance identification.
“You’re taking tests almost every day or every other day,” Darlington said. “It gives you a basic introduction to the terminology, which can be a shocker to some.”
The Navy course focused on the most current procedures for the location, identification, render-safe, recovery, technical evaluation and disposal of conventional surface and underwater ordnance.
“You go out, use everything you’ve learned, and then try to calm down and apply it,” Darlington said. “I think a lot of students weren’t able to do that.”
Master Sgt. Dustin Turner, an EOD technician at the Kentucky Air Guard, said Darlington was in superb physical condition before he left for training.
“None of the physical obstacles were physical obstacles to him,” Turner said. “He crushed them all. For Darlington to survive that experience and not have a single test failure is remarkable.”
The Navy course, located at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and formally known as Navy School Explosive Ordnance Disposal, is required for EOD specialists in all branches of the U.S. military.
By Airman 1st Class Annaliese Billings
123rd Airlift Wing