Brian Castner is a former explosive ordnance disposal officer, or EOD officer, who served in the Air Force during the war in Iraq. Castner deployed twice, in 2004 and 2006, as a commander of an EOD unit at the Balad and Kirkuk air bases, respectively. After leaving the military in 2007, he worked as a military contractor before turning to writing. Since 2018, Castner has worked at Amnesty International as a weapons and war crime investigator, becoming the head of crisis research in 2024. In that role, Castner has traveled to conflict areas around the world, such as Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Castner breaks down the rigorous training and preparation for EOD service, in which a single mistake can be fatal, as well as his transition into war crime investigation amid rising global tensions and rapidly increasing weapons production. For more: amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/armed-conflict Read "Former Air Force bomb diffuser says what the job is really like and that cutti...