ASAN, Guam (Commander, Joint Region Marianas Public Affairs Office) — Sailors from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit or EODMU 5 Detachment Marianas safely recovered a single Navy illumination round found at a Seabee construction site in Tinian, June 21.
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Marianas, notified the Joint Region Marianas region operations center of a possible unexploded ordnance or UXO and requested EODMU-5 Det. Marianas support.
EODMU-5 Det. Marianas dispatched two personnel who positively identified the ordnance as fully expended and posing no explosive threat. The round was secured and stored in Tinian for disposal.
EODMU-5 Det. Marianas Officer in Charge Lt. Jason Moyer said residents should remember to be careful when coming into contact with ordnance and encouraged the public to contact emergency responders should they find ordnance and vacate the area to ensure their safety.
“The UXO found throughout the Pacific can be extremely hazardous to anyone who comes across it. EODMU-5 Det. Marianas is fully committed to the safety of [Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands] residents in helping resolve any explosive threat from UXO found throughout the NMI. When found, residents should notify DFEMS [CNMI Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services] personnel immediately to ensure that the people and the surrounding area remain safe.”
The mission of EODMU-5 Det. Marianas is to render safe all types of ordnance, conventional and unconventional, improvised, chemical, biological, and nuclear to include Improvised Explosive Devices and Weapons of Mass Destruction. They perform land and underwater location, identification, render-safe, and recovery or disposal of foreign and domestic ordnance. They conduct demolition of hazardous munitions, pyrotechnics, and retrograde explosives using detonation and burning techniques.
This Jan. 24, 2019 file photo shows Lt. Ana Mansueti, assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit or EODMU 5, Detachment Marianas, gather shell fragments of World War II-era Japanese ordnance for detonation in Saipan.
