A 25-member team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, is in the Normandy region of France, searching for three missing airmen, whose C-47A aircraft was presumably shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Since there could be unexploded ordnance at the site, the person responsible for the team's safety is Air Force Tech. Sgt. Taylor Tompkins, an explosives ordnance disposal expert.
Before coming to the site in early April, Tompkins studied the aircraft and all of the possible ordnance it might have contained since they're no longer in the Defense Department's inventory.
The aircraft carried 14 paratroopers, who safely exited the plane before it crashed. However, some of them may have unintentionally left behind ordnance such as grenades. Also, the crew had small-arms weaponry, he said.
It's less ordnance than a bomber, but still ordnance, so it's important to be extra cautious and careful, Tompkins said.
Before and after the excavator scoops up dirt to be sorted for remains, Tompkins runs his metal detector over the location in search of ordnance. If any is found, he carefully removes it to a designated spot where local authorities will later dispose of it.
Tompkins, who is stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, has been in the Air Force nearly 11 years and has had numerous contingency and training deployments in Europe and Southeast Asia, where his EOD skills benefited the mission.
This is his first recovery mission and he said he's very fortunate to be here, helping the rest of the team sift through dirt in search of remains.
He also loves being in the Air Force and working on EOD assignments. Besides explosive ordnance, the military trains EOD experts in nuclear, chemical and biological hazards, he said.
"Essentially, we're a jack-of-all-trades. Whatever hazards are out there, we'll learn about them," Tompkins said.
Tompkins' grandfather was in the Air Force during the 1950s as an officer and they talked a lot and that's what piqued his interest in enlisting, he said.
The Virginia Beach, Virginia, native said, "it's a great honor to be able to come out here and do this work, especially since the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings is coming up on June 6."