|
|
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
|
|
'We're the thing nobody likes to believe you need' Crow Wing County duo part of bomb team Associate Editor ST. PAUL - In the massive security operation that's set up for the 2008 Republican National Convention, Crow Wing County Sheriff's Deputy Todd Hines' job is to be ready.
A certified bomb technician who's part of the multi-agency bomb team that's working 12-hour shifts in St. Paul, Hines described his team's role as a necessary evil in today's world.
"We have to be available," Hines said Monday morning. "We're the thing nobody likes to believe you need."
The GOP convention is Hines' first national event as a bomb team member. He compared the security job to a Super Bowl, but noted that the convention lasts four days instead of one.
The law officers who are working the convention are from all over Minnesota, but Hines said he knows many of the bomb technicians from training he's received over the years. His GOP convention team includes members of the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the St. Paul Police Department.
"It's a small group," he said of bomb team members. "If you're in it very long you make a lot of good contacts."
As of Monday morning no serious bomb incidents had been reported, he said, but bomb experts have been called to security check points several times to investigate items that look suspicious.
A 20-year veteran of the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Department who is currently an investigator, Hines said Crow Wing County's bomb team is one of only four in the state. The others are in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington, so the Crow Wing experts respond to calls from an area that stretches from St. Cloud to Canada. Hines said he's worked just south of St. Cloud and he's worked at a point on Crane Lake where he could eye the Canadian border. In a typical year, he said his unit would respond to 16 to 18 calls a year.
Typically, it's a situation where a citizen discovers explosives or old military munitions and the bomb team is called to dispose of it.
And why would a sheriff's deputy choose to specialize and become a bomb expert?
It's rewarding, he said, to know that you've safely removed old dynamite from a shed where kids might be playing.
His interest in handling explosives started when he learned a little about them while patrolling the outskirts of an explosive ordinance range while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.
"If something can hurt a bunch of people I'd just as soon handle it myself," he said. "I do it because I know I take the training seriously."
In some ways, Hines sees bomb work as safer than duty on a tactical squad in which people might be shooting at officers.
"I'm in control," he said of bomb team work.
If he were to respond to a suspected bomb, Hines and others would leave the shade of their Smith Avenue parking ramp, located across the street from the Xcel Energy Center, and put on his 130-pound bomb suit.
He said he doesn't pay attention to the political goings-on at the convention center, but he did take note that protesters would be marching to a point near the Xcel Energy Center on Monday afternoon.
Accompanying Hines from Crow Wing County is Deputy Skip Rudquist, whom Hines credited, along with Brainerd Police Officer Tom Mehr, with establishing Crow Wing County's bomb unit. The team, Hines said, has come a long way from the days in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Rudquist would use a county dump truck filled with sand to dispose of bombs.
In those early years, donations from the community helped equip the bomb squad. Aitkin Iron Works made the team's first bomb bucket. Later, Homeland Security funds helped provide necessary equipment. Hines and Rudquist brought Crow Wing County's bomb truck and trailer to St. Paul for the convention.
Other members of the Crow Wing County bomb team are Deputies Tim Moe, Scott Friis, John Ray, Jamie Lee and Brainerd Police Officer Jon Esterbrooks.
As of Monday, there had been no major security incidents, other than a few people who decided to jump the fence and were apprehended.
Hines, who watches training videos and confers with other bomb team members, was hopeful the situation would remain quiet.
MIKE O'ROURKE can be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
To Subscribe to the Brainerd Dispatch, Click Here.
Note: Comments are not edited and don't represent the views of The Brainerd Dispatch. Please read our posting rules in the terms of service policy. To report a post that may be inappropriate, click the triangle alert icon.
|
|
|
|
Thinking about a New Job?
These employers want you!
|
Loading...
|
|
|
Today's Best Classifieds:
|
|
|
|
|
|
