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Bombs Away
By
Bruce Dries
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Former Army bomb
disposal officer Brick Revloc is a savvy, scrappy little guy with a
penchant for getting into—and out of—tough situations around the
world. Brick only exists in the fictional world, but his adventures
are based on fact. Gregg Kocher ’82 (writing under the pen name
Burke Toliver) wrote Adak and Cubane, two
action/adventure novels that feature Brick, after serving on active
duty in the U.S. Army for eleven years as a bomb disposal officer.
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Gregg Kocher |
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After being
commissioned through the IUP ROTC program, Kocher was part of an
international group that helped clean up unexploded ordnance in
Kuwait in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War. He also served a tour in
Baghdad in the summer of 2003, working with the Missile and Space
Intelligence Center, a sub-agency of the Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA). Kocher is now a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves and
still works with the DIA. In his civilian job, he is a UXO
(unexploded ordnance) Safety Specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, investigating former military bases for old bombs and
bullets that have been left behind.
Kocher searching
for UXO in Colorado
“I don’t consider
the job dangerous, although potentially it could be,” he said.
“Sometimes the difficulties of climbing 13,000-plus-foot mountains
in Colorado or getting a vehicle stuck in sand in 117-degree heat in
southern California present the greatest challenges. But, you have
to go where the bullets are.”
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That usually
means remote spots, although UXO has been found in people’s
backyards, in city parks, and on public beaches.
Kocher holds the
Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal badge and has consulted to the
Defense Intelligence Agency and counterterrorist task forces. His
participation in the Gulf War earned him a Bronze Star Medal, and he
was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal during Operation
Iraqi Freedom. |
LTC Kocher at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, in July, 2003 |
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Many actual
experiences were incorporated into Kocher’s books, both humorous and
scary. For example, when he was part of a joint FBI/DOE task force
formed to find and neutralize stolen/improvised nuclear devices,
they experimented with silly string to mark sophisticated
booby-traps.
“Some of the
stories in the books needed no exaggeration, while I took a little
license with others,” he said.
His wife, Janet,
a native of Indiana, Pa., knows the drill. “I think she worries more
about my forty-six-mile commute to work than any dangers from
bombs,” he said.
 Kocher and his
family live in Missouri. His oldest daughter, now sixteen, was born
in the Republic of Panama (She and Janet were evacuated from there
during the invasion of 1989). Their other daughter is ten.
 His first book,
Adak, is dedicated to a good friend who was killed during the
Gulf War. Brick’s adventures are available at
Amazon.com, PublishAmerica.com, and major booksellers.
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