WITH recent reports of phosphorus bombs and Second World War hand grenades being found locally, I decided to visit the local bomb disposal unit to find out more about their work.

I was met by the troop commander, Captain Lisa Brown, and her Welsh cocker spaniel, Lava.

Capt Brown commands Tidworth Troop - 721 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squadron, 11 EOD Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps to give it its full title. The troop is responsible for all land-based explosive incidents in the south west of England.

There are also two Royal Navy teams based in Plymouth and Portsmouth.

She is an ammunition technical officer, the product of a 17-month technical training course. The course focuses on, what the army calls, land service ammunition, conventional and chemical munitions, their storage, management and also bomb disposal.

Her unit is just 22 strong and includes soldiers of other cap badges who have volunteered for bomb disposal work. There is always at least one team on immediate notice for call-out to any incident.

For service in Afghanistan there are additional, very demanding, training courses which few pass first time.

They are controlled from a UK Operations Room at RHQ in Didcot and are called out to a wide variety of tasks ranging from calls from the public who have seen, what they think is, a suspicious device, to first and second world war munitions which are found, especially in and around Salisbury Plain where so many troops were trained for both conflicts.

The team’s biggest job in recent time was a 500lb liquid fill bomb discovered on Porton Down ranges.

They also go to what are called “ammunition incidents” where there has been a misfire or accident involving in service ammunition and carry out inspections of any unit that holds ammunition.

The troop is currently gearing up for the Olympics and will have a team based in Weymouth during the Games.

I asked Capt Brown why she volunteered for EOD: “It is the best job in the British Army,” she said. “It is the most varied and most rewarding, you can stay within the trade for almost your entire career, or you can go to other mainstream disciplines within the RLC.”