JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – The 53rd Ordnance Company (EOD), 3rd Ordnance Battalion (EOD), stationed at the Yakima Training Center in central Washington, will be welcomed home at the end of this week by family and friends from their year-long deployment to Afghanistan. They are currently expected to arrive in Yakima late Friday, March 18 or early Saturday March 19 at YTC (redeployment flight arrival times are subject to change).
About 40 Soldiers from the 53rd EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] deployed to Southern Afghanistan in March 2010. Their job was to perform route clearance, counter-IED, and force protection missions for U.S. Military, NATO, and Afghani National forces.