Great balls of fire: Mercedes resident finds dream ‘job' creating fiery explosions for CAF aerial reenactments

For Rodney "Boss" Robinson, the best part of airshows has always been the pyrotechnics — the fireballs and booms that accompany aerial reenactments such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other historic events in the annals of air power.

Now, as volunteer detachment leader of the Explosive Ordnance Detachment of the Commemorative Air Force, Robinson is in charge of those booms and fireballs. The EOD is one of three CAF pyro units. Robinson, a retired high school special education teacher and Mercedes resident, is in charge of the entire pyro effects team at Air Fiesta.

At airshows, the pyro team sets up on the other side side of the runway from spectators and the flight line. Personnel called "shooters" deploy at several stations, or "spreads," along the length of the runway where planes will zoom by. The Tora, Tora, Tora Pearl Harbor reenactment, for instance, will probably feature five individual spreads.

Each shooter’s spread is assigned a set number of individual fireball/explosions, or "shots," to be detonated at the right moment to simulate bombs being dropped. Other pyro affects include simulated strafing, the "spider shot," which resembles a miniature atom bomb going off, and the crowd-pleasing "wall of fire" — billowing flames 700 feet long and 100 feet high.

The idea is to give spectators an idea of what warbirds look like on the job.

"It just adds so much to the realism of the show," Robinson says. "It’s just showcasing those World War II aircraft in more of a realistic light. We’re by no means glorifying war. This is what these airplanes did."

Robinson is the "shooter in charge" — the man responsible for coordinating the tyro with the "air boss," or airshow choreographe, and pilots. This is done via walkie-talkies. When the air boss calls for a "hot pass," the shooters do their thing. Everything shot is planned in advance, though, which ideally eliminates any guesswork, Robinson says.

Occasionally there’s an ill-timed shot, though that’s the exception, he says. Robinson recalls at least one time when a shot went off for no known reason. At the same time, safety and training are paramount, he says.

The explosives themselves are a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel. On cue, plastic bags of the stuff are detonated, which creates the fireball. Simultaneously, a high-explosive similar to dynamite is set off, creating the necessary ka-boom, ka-blam or ka-blooey.

"The fireball without any sound would just be a fireball," Robinson says. "It’d just be a poof. So we attach an ammonium nitrate-type explosive material. We just call it dynamite. Our call sign as a matter of fact, whenever were out on the field talking to the airboss and the pilots, we’re ‘Dynamite.’ That’s our call sign."