Master Sgt. Robert Mann, noncommissioned officer in charge of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from Marine Wing Support Squadron 172, wraps up gear at the Camp Foster Exchange on Saturday after inspecting a cooler that someone had left behind. (Fred Zimmerman / S&S)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A suspicious cooler was found in the parking lot of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service store here early Saturday afternoon, prompting the closing of the shopping area for more than two hours.
The medium-sized, red ice chest was found standing unattended in a parking space about 1 p.m., according to a Marine Corps spokesman.
Military police, base fire department personnel and a Marine Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team from Marine Wing Support Squadron 172 were called in to deal with the cooler. One EOD Marine dressed in full protective gear, Sgt. Bobby Moon, placed a portable X-ray unit next to the cooler to determine if it was a threat.
Moon and Master Sgt. Robert Mann, a noncommissioned officer in charge of the EOD team, then X-rayed the cooler from a truck parked several hundred feet away and determined it was safe. They walked back to the area and opened the cooler, revealing its contents to be Powerade and water.
Mann said that every unaccompanied box or package reported to police must be treated as a threat. No matter how innocent a package appears, he said, the team treats all possible threats the same.
“You never know,” Mann said. “Just like in Iraq, it could look like a cement block sitting along the road, but you treat it with every precaution because it could be something else.”
The owner of the cooler was being sought Saturday.
Fred Zimmerman contributed to this report.
