TEEX Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Training Program Celebrates 25 Years

Twenty-five years ago this month, the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) became the first organization in the United States to offer an Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Technician Training Course for civilians, which was approved by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Today, the Explosive Safety Program offers seven different courses and has trained 1,400 participants, including members of law enforcement, the military, environmental clean-up specialists, and explosive handlers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, among others.

A student learns how to properly excavate a buried UXO during a recent UXO Technician I training course.
A student learns how to properly excavate a buried UXO during a recent UXO Technician I training course.

UXOs are explosive weapons, such as bombs, rockets, grenades, land mines, and other munitions that did not explode when they were deployed and still pose a risk of detonation, sometimes many decades after they are used or discarded. The TEEX UXO program provides participants with comprehensive, hands-on training in the safe detection, location, identification and disposal of UXOs using state-of-the-art techniques and emerging technologies.

The impetus for the TEEX UXO program was an agreement in the 1990s between the DOD and the Oglala Sioux Tribe at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to provide training to tribe members so they could participate in the remediation of the Badlands Bombing Range. Then Col. Paul Ihrke, the U.S. Army’s staff representative on the DOD Explosives Safety Board contacted TEEX to explore starting up a training program to teach workers and contractors to tackle the massive environmental cleanup and remediation of thousands of acres of former military installations that were closed during the 1990s.

“I envisioned a program based on the unclassified portion of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) basic course taught at the Navy EOD School, but had difficulty finding an organization that would agree to train civilians,” said Ihrke, who is now an instructor for the TEEX UXO program. “My cousin worked for the agricultural extension service at Texas A&M, and he referred me to former TEEX Associate Director Bob Prock. Working with Bob, in conjunction with the Sudhakar Company, the project started with a signed agreement in January 1997. My main effort was to get DOD approval for the course and obtain as many training aids as possible from the military.”

Ihrke noted that three other individuals need to be recognized for the early development of the program: Mr. Ash Sudhakar, who provided a financial contribution to the program; Retired U.S. Navy Master Chief Rex Shipp, a former instructor at the Navy EOD school, who developed the curriculum, set up the training areas and served as the initial lead instructor; and Retired U.S. Navy Master Chief Dennis Houseknecht who assisted Shipp and Ihrke in the early stages of the program.

The Texas A&M Riverside Campus—now Texas A&M-RELLIS—provided sufficient acreage for the program to build a search grid and demolition range for the UXO program. Today, course participants utilize both the range and search grid to identify and locate surface and subsurface UXOs using military and civilian detection devices; perform UXO excavation procedures; transport UXO and demolition materials; prepare firing systems for destruction operations, and more.

Stages of a UXO detonation on the program’s demolition range.
Stages of a UXO detonation on the program’s demolition range.

This month a new search grid and demolition range was opened in TEEX’s new Public Service Training Complex on the south side of Texas A&M-RELLIS.

One primary impact of the program cited by Ihrke was remediation of the tremendous UXO cleanup in the Middle East following the Second Persian Gulf War. “The Army Corps of Engineers really relied on our program to help complete their clean-up mission,” he said.

TEEX Agency Training Coordinator Ed Fritz was an instructor at the U.S. Navy EOD School when he learned about the TEEX Emergency Service Training Institute’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) Program. After retiring from the military in August 2002, he joined TEEX and began teaching CBRNE, but when the position opened for leading the UXO program in early 2004, he quickly moved into that position.

“‘Safety and teamwork’ is the mantra of our program. We want people who are going to be working with unexploded ordnance to be safe. Whether it’s the public safety bomb techs or the contractors who are cleaning military bombing ranges, we want to make them the best informed and the safest that we can. I enjoy my work and think I have the best job in the world. I’d like to think I have made an impact here at TEEX and on the thousands of people we have trained. We have gone from just the UXO Tech 1 program to also teaching the Advanced Ordnance Recognition for Law Enforcement (AORLE) course, to Humanitarian Demining and Heavy Equipment Operator course for Ordnance Workers. We have come a long way, and I am happy to be part of it for 20-plus years.”

L to R: Former TEEX Law Division Director John Ray, UXO Instructor Paul Ihrke, UXO Training Coordinator Ed Fritz and Former TEEX Deputy Director Al Davis receive a Governor's proclamation recognizing the 20th Anniversary of the Explosive Safety Program in 2019.
L to R: Former TEEX Law Division Director John Ray, UXO Instructor Paul Ihrke, UXO Training Coordinator Ed Fritz and Former TEEX Deputy Director Al Davis receive a Governor’s proclamation recognizing the 20th Anniversary of the Explosive Safety Program in 2019.

The two-week AORLE course, consisting of classroom instruction and hands-on activities, is popular with bomb squads assigned to police departments, as well as bomb technicians with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the FBI.

“Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the AORLE class,” said a course participant who is a bomb technician in Central Texas. “Ordnance recognition is a critical part of my job description, and this course does an incredible job of covering the full spectrum of identification and pairing them with all the associated hazards. After attending this course conducted by instructor Ed Fritz, my level of confidence and operational readiness increased astronomically, and I could not recommend the course highly enough. The level of instruction and learning environment is second to none and mimicked by a number of courses across the nation. I was able to attend multiple recognition courses after attending AORLE and none compare. The training I received at TEEX far surpassed the information provided elsewhere and led me to be in the top percentile of the follow-on classes. Do yourself, your team and your area of operation a favor and get to AORLE for the best recognition training available.”

Learn more about TEEX Explosives & Ordnance Training.

About TEEX

The Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) is an internationally recognized leader in emergency response training, workforce training and technical assistance. In 2023, TEEX trained more than 212,000 participants from every U.S. state and territory and 118 countries worldwide.

Major TEEX programs include Fire and Emergency Services, Infrastructure and Safety, Law Enforcement and Protective Services, and Business and Cyber Solutions. Additionally, through its National Emergency Response and Recovery Training Center (NERRTC), TEEX provides federally funded homeland security training and technical assistance for communities across the nation. The agency also sponsors the Texas A&M Public Works Response Team (TX-PWRT) and the Texas A&M Task Force 1 (TX-TF1) Urban Search and Rescue Team.

For more information, visit teex.org

Distributed by:
Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service
Vita Vaughn | Director of Marketing and Communications/CMO
[email protected]
Office: (979) 458-7726 | Cell: (979) 402-7810