Welcome UXO Guest Author - Tom Gersbeck
Tom Gersbeck is the Director of the MMRP Division of EW Wells Group, LLC based out of Dallas, Texas. From July 2010 to July 2013, Tom served multiple overseas tours as PM of the Joint Asymmetric Threat Awareness & Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (JATAC-FWD), Mobile Training Teams (MTT), supporting military operations, Triage Laboratory Lead of the RC-North and RC-East Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell (CEXC) in Afghanistan, and also worked in the biometrics laboratory.
He served as Team Leader of the first contracted operational EOD Team in Basra, Iraq on the Department of State (DoS), Worldwide Protective Services (WPS) contract; and as an adviser for DoS to the Tanzanian Peoples Defense Force on the Gongo La Mboto ammunition dump mishap in February, 2011.
From December 2003 to July 2010, Tom served with the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) in a variety of billets to include Explosives Branch Chief of the National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program (NEDCTP), Technology Officer with the Explosives Operations Division (EOD), and as the Philadelphia Field Office Explosives Security Specialist (ESS). His responsibilities included technological, investigative and operational support to first responders, numerous national as well as international boards, and working groups on a variety of CBRNE related topics.
He is a retired Marine, having served as an EOD technician/officer; a Force Protection Officer, and an Anti-Terrorism Training Officer retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer in 2001. He has a Master of Forensic Sciences degree from National University, California and a Bachelor of Management Science from Park University, Missouri. An experienced educator, Tom has worked as an Adjunct Professor for Copper Mountain College, and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
As a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators (IABTI) since 1991, Tom served as the National Capitol Chapter (Washington DC) Director from 2007-2009. He has also been a Member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) since 2000.
He is currently writing a book titled "Practical Military Ordnance Identification," and it is part of Vernon Geberth's Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigation Series, published by Taylor & Francis CRC Press. The book has been submitted for editing and is expected to be out in March, 2014.
