Fighting a different kind of enemy

10/10/2003 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- What do you call a spider with no legs?

An octo-plegic, joked Tech. Sgt. Charles Latshaw, a pest management technician with the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadrons entomology division.

But the job is not always fun and games for Latshaw and his counterpart, Tech. Sgt. Frank Flodin, also a pest management technician with the 380th ECES. They have been sent to this forward-deployed operating location in Southwest Asia to fight an enemy that is not even human.

Their mission is disease control, so they fight the pests, rodents and insects that cause or transmit illness.

Our mission here is to ensure that everyone on the base is healthy enough to fight and win (the) war, Latshaw said.

That is probably the biggest difference we see in our job here, Flodin said. Back at home station, we are there more for an economic purpose: We prevent termites and things that destroy food or property.

Because a lot of aspects of our job back home are contracted out, we act more as quality assurance in the states. But here, we get to do more of the hands-on portion of our job, he said.

Both agree their favorite part of the job is also sometimes the most challenging.

The best part of my job is interacting with different people and educating the public, Latshaw said.

A lot of times, people dont know about the disease and illness that different insects and rodents (can) cause, so education is 90 percent of our job, Flodin added.

Latshaw and Flodin faced a different kind of challenge when they arrived here as the first entomology team since 1995.

They quickly noticed a serious lack of efficient facilities, equipment, pesticides, self-help items and pesticide-reporting procedures.

We had a lot of help from all the other CE shops in getting our office up and running, Flodin said. Their help certainly doesnt go unnoticed. Without them, we would be sitting in this building without lights, power, air conditioning, walls -- we would have nothing.

Both Latshaw and Flodin arrived in July. Latshaw is deployed from the 7th Civil Engineer Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and Flodin is from the 2nd CES at Barksdale AFB, La.

They said they have enjoyed the challenges they faced here but are looking forward to heading home.

Honestly, though, If I had to be deployed anywhere, Id rather be here, Flodin said.