ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel learn appropriate individual actions within their inter and intra group experiences through the shared history of formal and informal training, doctrine, rituals, and practice. The EOD job responsibilities also include supporting government intelligence units and federal agencies such as the US Secret Service and the State Department. In the United States military, Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel undergo some of the most comprehensive qualification training in all of the branches' occupational specialties. Any environment can become an EOD operating environment. For those reasons, in this work, the term operating environment refers to an overview of the situations people are in, rather than focusing on one geographical site or specific incident type. Conceptual tasks associated with EOD work, or socially interactive tasks like planning an appropriate course of action, negotiating approaches, and intragroup decision-making, however, are myriad, situated, temporally dynamic, and highly context dependent.
