Staff Sgt. Tyler Orvick, left, and Sgt. Emmanuel Orozco, technicians with the Alaska-based 716th Ordnance Company, disarm a mock bomb aboard a vessel docked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, on Feb. 12, 2026, as part of the U.S. Army Pacific EOD Team of the Year competition. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii — Soldiers from four explosive ordnance teams spent the week on Oahu vying to represent the Pacific theater in the all-Army EOD Team of the Year competition in April.
Claiming the prize of U.S. Army Pacific EOD Team of the Year on Friday were soldiers from the 716th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company (EOD) out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richards, Alaska.
The 716th team bested its sister unit from Alaska, the 65th Ordnance Company (EOD), which snagged the all-Army title last year. It is based at Fort Wainwright.
Other Army Pacific teams joining the competition were the 74th Ordnance Company from Hawaii and 718th Ordnance Company based in South Korea.
A team from Marine Corps Base Hawaii and another representing the Canadian army’s 4th Engineer Support Regiment from New Brunswick were also in the mix.
That pair of non-Army teams “enhance the training aspect of this competition,” Lt. Col. Arianna Morell, commander of the 303rd Ordnance Battalion, said Thursday during an event on an Army watercraft docked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The 303rd, based at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, commands the Hawaii and two Alaska companies.
“Obviously there will be an overall [Army Pacific] winner, but we do acknowledge who did the best out of our partner participants,” Morell said. “Seeing how our sister services do things increases our lethality.”
The week-long competition included a grueling fitness component in full field gear.
Six observers ran the teams through “lanes” that mimic real-life EOD scenarios, such as counter-improvised explosive devices, robotics/remote operations and chemical threats.
In a scenario aboard the Army vessel Thursday, a team was tasked with investigating a suspicious orange toolbox found on the lower deck.
After using a small X-ray device to determine what was inside — actual electronic components used for a bomb but no munitions — the techs opened the lid, disarmed it and carried it off the vessel for destruction.
They then reassembled the “bomb” toolbox and disarmed it in a much more dramatic and loud fashion, using a percussion actuated neutralizer, or PAN. That device fired a 12-gauge shotgun shell that propelled a stream of water with enough force to smash through the toolbox and deactivate the electronics inside.
The observers judge teams on three main criteria, Morell said.
“Did you defeat the problem?” she said. “Did you do it in a manner that protects personnel and infrastructure? And then, how efficient were you?”
Judges weigh the role good luck plays in getting the job done, she said.
“A lot of it is judging the thought process they go through. It’s like, ‘Well, you did this and it worked, but you didn’t think about these things, and you were lucky.’”
Army EOD technicians follow standard operating procedures, but there is a level of art in approaching disposal.
As one observer said while peering below deck at the toolbox bomb, “It’s you against the bombmaker.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Avila of the Hawaii-based 303rd said he relishes the chance to work closely with the Alaska-based units during the competition.
The competition “gives us a good base of where we need to improve training or need to refocus and shift,” he said.
