hans4

I'm going into the Navy as an EOD Officer. EOD is disarming bombs, diving, parachuting, working with marine mammals, working with robotics. But predominatly disarming bombs. I was wondering what would be the best major. I was thinking something in the engineer field or possibly chemistry or marine biology. Any thoughts on what would be best for "blowing stuff up".

merper68

EE? Bombs are all circuits these days, the payload is almost an afterthought. Deciding whether to cut the blue wire or red wire would probably be about understanding the IC design.

hans4

I thought about that. But wouldn't ChemE/Chemistry (mixing chemicals) be more useful for explosives.

toxic_waste

its all in the circuitry...a warhead isn't any good without something to set it off. except if it uses a purely mechanical mechanism. so ME or EE. doesn't matter what its made of, if you can't disarm it by hand you'll probably move it and set it off on purpose or shoot it/blow it up.

hans4

I see what you're saying, but I'm having trouble believing that chemE/chem isn't the obvious choice for explosives. The training pipeline for EOD is:
*dive school - learn about the various kinds of equipment and dive physics.
*EOD school - broken down into specific types of ordnance:

AIR ORDNANCE DIVISION - Focuses on bombs and missiles
IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE - Includes “homemade bombs”
NUCLEAR ORDNANCE DIVISION - Covers basic nuclear physics and radiation monitoring and decontamination procedures
UNDERWATER ORDNANCE DIVISION - Emphasizes torpedoes and other underwater explosives as well as underwater search techniques

Every section teaches how to render-safe or defuse ordnance.

merper68

Ok, so why do you need chem or chemE at all then? How do you forsee it helping in you in your chosen job?

hans4

I see chemE/chem helping me by the fact that you will be an expert in mixing different chemicals. Wouldn't that be the most beneficial to explosives, or am I way off?

merper68

Understanding how the chemicals mix will tell you how the explosive reactants mix, the kinetics of the reaction, the force and nature of the explosion. It might let you explode things in a controlled manner, but it's not going to stop things from going off. That's all EE.

Honestly, I'm still not sure what you're going for here. I've got no clue how how the Navy does things, but you seem to be narrowing your focus too much. There can't be that many bombs going off that it's all you're going to be doing. If they train you on specifics as you say, then just pick something that is of interest to you and go with that. If you like exothermic reactions, then study chem. If not, pick some other science or engineering major. I can't imagine the military turning down any well-trained engineer regardless of the specialty.

hans4

OK thanks for your help.

Saxonthebeach6

Some schools have naval engineering programs, do they not? Anyway, MechE is the quintessential "blow stuff up" major.

raimius

Whatever you are good at and interested in...