not an official Army account | I tweet about the Army and dad things | Host of It's A Blast Podcast (link below) | views are my own, not DoW.
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My interview with SGM Mike Vining (@BlastingThrough)
Next weekend, the EOD Community will gather in Florida to remember our fallen. People will travel from all over the world to raise a glass to our friends who have left us and be with the community.
I promised that leading up to the event I would post some interviews that I had done with members of EOD family.
SGM Mike Vining is a national treasure. He is a founding member of Delta Force, but what most people dont know is that he got his start as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician. This interview really focuses on that position of his life and career.
I hope that you will give it a watch.
Doing social media while in the military is a lot like being on the bomb squad, because if you make just one mistake, it’s over for you.
Today I am Remembering Aaron Merritt
12 years ago today, Aaron passed away at the VA hospital in Nashville, TN. He had been put on a medication that required regular blood work to monitor toxicity levels. Those tests were not done.
By the time he arrived at the VA hospital on 27 October 2014, it was already too late. He died the next day of sepsis. Had those tests occurred regularly, he would still be alive.
Merritt deployed multiple times in his Army Career, twice as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician. He was decorated twice for Valor.
He was my first team mate in EOD, and he taught me a lot. He kept me alive. When he finally exited the Army, we were all excited for him; Aaron was a magnet for combat. We were sure if he stuck around in the Army he would be killed in action.
Instead his death happened in the States, alone in a VA hospital room.
His family sued the VA. Although they never admitted to anything, they settled for 2.5 million dollars.
Aaron was a great dude with quick wit and a sharpe sense of humor.
He deserved better.
One of the EOD guys from my first deployment did the Army’s “enlisted to doctors” program.
He did 2 years of premed, 4 years of medical school, and then specialized as a trauma surgeon.
It cost him zero dollars.
He has no debt for medical school.
He’s set up for life.
The bomb that kill’s you isn’t the one that you see, it’s the one that you don’t.
I worked on an incredibly busy EOD team in Afghanistan. We would run multiple IEDs a day, often bouncing around our area of operations multiple times in a day.
You get to learn the land pretty well after a while and gain an understanding of what enemy cells own what area. For example, If we went east, it was command-detonated IEDs. If we went south it was pressure plates. If we went north it was cell phones, etc.
We had been to the same area multiple times for pressure plates, when we got a call about an unburied pressure plate on the road. Pretty uncommon, since the whole purpose is to hide the bomb from people so that they don’t see it.
When we got on scene, we parked in a new area. I could see where we had parked a couple of days prior, next to a steep embankment. After spending sometime on the suspect device with the robot, I put on the bombsuit and went down range. The pressure plate on top of the road wasn’t connected to anything.
We then investigated where we had parked a couple of days prior. Sure enough there was a large explosive charge in the ground…meant for me.
I leaned a lot that day. Mainly that I was being watched and had to continue to change up what I was doing; which I did.
This was me. I was failing out of community college because nothing about college interested me.
I joined the Army.
18 years later, the Army paid for my degree. I’m a homeowner. I learned a trade. I learned how to lead.
I’ve met the best people from around the country.
I’ve served proudly.
You have to put in the work, but if you can cut it, the military will set you up for life.
Top Ten Places For a Nap, Army Edition:
1. The bleachers after the range
2. Passenger in tactical vehicle
3. Airplane before a jump/traveling home from deployment
4. Appointment waiting room
5. Bus ride to training
6. After finishing a physical event while waiting for others to be done
7. The CQ desk at 0200
8. Standing in formation
9. Waiting for transportation
10. Waiting for EOD to arrive
“Army Practices Digging Temporary Battlefield Graves”
Hopefully we never need to use this skill, but like all things, you need to practice for all possibilities.
When I went through the Logistics captain’s course, you would get talked to if you even brought up burial on foreign soil.
As grim as it may seem, It’s something that must be prepared for, and hopefully never needed.
armytimes.com/news/2026/10/2…
Remember life before group chats and how all the work still managed to get done without a million messages?
A haunted house where your boss endlessly says, “We’ll circle back,” room after room, until you lose your mind.
For added effect, people in the waiting area can watch it on Teams.
you gotta help me spread this message!
Rob Evans, AKA @hotscots_app, is part of the Microsoft cuts. The future for his family just became very uncertain. This man built Hots and Cots not for money, but for love of Soldiers.
Let’s see if we can get him hired!
#HireRobEvans
Please share!
Hots&Cots has never been my full-time job. It’s been nights, weekends, and vacation days.
My day job has been almost 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as a senior iOS engineer. I’m part of this round.
So I’m open to two things:
* A full-time senior iOS role, building apps or the platforms behind them.
* Contract work. If you need an iOS, Android, or web app built end to end, that’s how I built Hots&Cots.
DMs are open. Hots&Cots isn’t going anywhere.
In September 2013, a complex attack occurred at the American Consulate in Herat Afghanistan.
A VBIED detonated in front of the main gate. The follow on attack consisted of a second van full of suicide bombers. Unfortunately for them, the second gate was still in tact and they were easily dispatched by Diplomatic Security and contractors on the roof.
I was part of the secondary response element that arrived to replace the SEAL Team and continue site clean up. There was A LOT of unexploded ordnance left from the attack that my team and I had the pleasure of disposing.
In what can only be described as “it’s a small world, and even smaller military,” I later worked with the Navy EOD guy who was first on scene. We both did a lot of work out there.
Landing on the lawn of the consulate in Chinooks remains one of the coolest and most surreal experiences of my career.
