It takes a special person to serve on bomb squad
Crow Wing County Bomb Squad
When the Crow Wing County Bomb Squad was started in 1978 there was little between a bomb technician and a potential bomb.
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Squad members often checked suspicious packages and devices by walking up to them. Ordnance was exploded in the box of a dump truck filled with sand.
Tim Moe, a Crow Wing County sheriff's deputy and Crow Wing County Bomb Squad member, demonstrated the operation of the Vanguard robot, one of the robots used by the bomb squad to investigate suspicious packages. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey » Purchase reprints of this photo.
A lot has changed in 30 years.
The bomb squad, one of four in the state and the only one outside of the Twin Cities, now uses robots to investigate suspicious devices and has trucks with an office and labs and a bomb suit to protect technicians from blasts.
"With technology, it's not so much that it's getting better and easier to do things, but it has to do with the safety of the bomb technician. We call it time on target. The less time you're on it, the better off you are. There's less time to get hurt," said Tim Moe, Crow Wing County Bomb Squad member and Crow Wing County sheriff's deputy. "Technology has saved lives, endless lives. Back before we had this stuff, (the country) had a lot of bomb techs getting killed."
The Crow Wing County Bomb Squad often is called to dispose of TNT, a common form of ordnance, as well as old ammunition, artillery shells and blasting caps. Twice a year the squad uses the range at Camp Ripley to destroy the materials. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey » Purchase reprints of this photo.
The bomb squad was started by Crow Wing County Sheriff's Deputy Skip Rudquist and Brainerd Police Officer Tom Mehr. As one of four in the state - the others are in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington - the squad covers an area from St. Cloud to the Canadian border.
Current members are Moe, Scott Friis, Tim Friis, Jamie Lee and John Ray, all of whom are Crow Wing County sheriff's deputies. Rudquist, who has since retired from the sheriff's department and the bomb squad and now is a part-time deputy in the Crow Wing County court system, continues to serve as a reserve bomb technician.
"Skip has saved our butts big time in a lot of cases," Moe said. "He's an endless amount of knowledge."
As part of a mock disaster in September at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport, a Crow Wing County Bomb Squad robot was used to secure a suspicious package - actually just a bowling ball bag - found near the entrance of the airport terminal. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey » Purchase reprints of this photo.
Cases the bomb squad responds to range from old ammunition to suspected bombs. Most cases involve the old ammunition, fireworks, blasting caps or dynamite found in barns, sheds or garages.
A few are more serious.
This year, the bomb squad twice was called to Mille Lacs County on reports of bombs. One call, near Bock, was for a pipe bomb that Moe said was probably made to do nothing more than blow a hole in a tree. The other, in Princeton, involved bombs set at a school, city hall, post office and other places designed to shut down government.
"It was one of the ones I would call a worst-case scenario," Moe said.
Scott Friis, Crow Wing County Bomb Squad member, wearing a protective bomb suit, checked out a van near where a suspicious package was found during a mock disaster drill in September at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey » Purchase reprints of this photo.
The bomb squad assumes every case it is called out on is a worst-case scenario, and spends a lot of time training for such an occasion. Along with spending six weeks in Huntsville, Ala., to receive federal certification to be a bomb technician, the squad members must train for 16 hours every month.
The squad works in two-man teams, spending two weeks on call and two weeks as secondary on call. Moe said the team likely won't add more members unless more territory is added, as is being discussed with northern Wisconsin.
The reason more members aren't added is because it reduces the number of scenarios for which the squad can train and because the group is tight-knit, Moe said.
"It's about the camaraderie," Moe said. "It's not like you're working on an assembly line, where it doesn't matter if you've worked with this guy or not. Here, your life depends on the guy standing behind you."
Crow Wing County Sheriff Todd Dahl said it takes a different kind of person, one who has a deep interest in ordnance and a steady concentration to serve on a specialized unit such as the bomb squad.
"If it was an easy job everybody would do it," Dahl said. "You have to have a real knack for that type of thing. They do a great job."
Moe said he's heard a lot of people question whether bomb squad technicians do the job for glory only. That's not true, he said. They do it because they want to serve their community and like to do the job.
"It's like, let me put you in a bomb suit on a 100-degree day and you can spend eight hours in that bomb suit and see how glorified it is," Moe said. "There's nothing glorified about it. It's a mindset. It's something you have to want to do in life. If you're doing it because you have nothing better to do, then you shouldn't be on the team."
It's been a busy year for the Crow Wing County Bomb Squad. While most years average about 15 calls, the bomb squad has been on 26 calls so far. A lot of them are unfounded, but some, like in Princeton, have been serious.
Dahl said he has only one rule when the squad is called out - when they're done, they need to call him and let him know they are OK.
"I couldn't be more proud to have the squad in the sheriff's office," Dahl said. "From the way it started out to the way it's evolved, it's really something to be proud of."
MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.