01 July 2018 . Farewell to LT Pace as he completes a successful tour as the Supply Officer of EOD Expeditionary Exploitation Unit ONE. R3’s Chuck Anning, far right, has been a key part of the N4/N8 department during the LT’s tour. Fair winds and following seas to LT Pace.
We are excited to welcome aboard Ken Martin to the R3 family. He retired from the United States Navy after twenty-three years of service and was piped ashore during a retirement ceremony held at the Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center (NDSTC) in Panama City, Florida. See a retirement photo at this link. Ken began his service as a Navy Diver at Trident Refit Facility Bangor, WA. He served onboard USS Simon Lake in La Madalena, Italy and at Naval Operational Medicine Institute, Pensacola, FL. He was commissioned in 2000 through the Enlisted Commissioning Program after graduating from the University of Washington and subsequently joined the Special Operations Officer Community.
Post commissioning, Ken continued to serve in a variety of areas including Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Navy Diving, Surface Warfare, and Mine Warfare. He is well versed in Irregular Warfare, Counter Insurgency, Counter IED / Anti-Terrorism, Security Force Assistance, and NATO / Coalition partnership. He completed two combat deployments to Iraq working directly with coalition and Iraqi forces where he earned two Bronze Stars. Specifically, his Platoon was assigned to train the Iraqi Bomb Disposal Forces.
In the area of training and education, Ken served as Executive Officer (Acting) at the Center for EOD and Diving (CEODD). He coordinated the establishment of a PEP instructor position at Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center with an exchange Master Diver position in Cartagena, Spain. Ken also headed the initiative to revamp the EOD Officer warfare qualification and associated standards; creating an EOD Officer Qualification as well as a Department Head level qualification.
Ken’s formal education includes a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Washington and a Master’s degree in Operational and Information Science from the Naval Postgraduate School in the Special Operations for Low Intensity Conflict Department.
R3 Strategic Support Group, Inc., a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), is proud to support the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms in the design, administration, and execution of exercise Raven’s Challenge. This annual, Joint Program Office sponsored counter terrorism exercise enables military Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units and federal, state, and municipal public safety bomb squads to jointly exercise command and control, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP), and evaluate new equipment. Raven’s Challenge participants include military EOD units and civilian public safety bomb squads from the Pacific Northwest region to include Washington, Oregon, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The exercise is hosted by the 741st Ordnance Battalion (EOD), Washington National Guard. In addition to enabling Department of Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) interoperability, Raven’s Challenge is specifically designed to allow military EOD units and public safety bomb squad teams to learn and benefit from other’s expertise and experiences and exercise joint incident response.
