For more than a year, that was the job of Sgt. 1st Class Keith Kempke, who returned this summer with a Bronze Star from an Iraq tour with the 745th Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Company.

"It's a job I love because it is like being a fireman or policeman, out there saving lives,'' Kempke said on a recent morning, sitting in the living room of his Pleasant Ridge home, before heading off to his civilian job at a local manufacturing plant.

"But it's more than that,'' Kempke said as he tapped the keyboard of his laptop computer, scrolling through a file of photographs from his 18-month deployment. "It's the danger, too. Doing something other people don't want to do. I have to say that drew me to this work, too.''

That danger is real. Kempke and his 22-member platoon spent their tour of duty roaming the Iraq countryside and city streets seeking out the thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance left behind by Saddam Hussein's army and destroying it before it fell into the hands of Iraqi insurgents.

The platoon was under constant threat of snipers or of devices exploding before they could be defused.

And every moment Kempke spent on the ground in Iraq, there was a price on his head - a $5,000 reward offered by Iraqi insurgent leaders to anyone who killed a bomb-squad technician.

"We had targets on our backs all the time,'' Kempke said.

But the explosive ordnance he and his platoon handled every day was dangerous enough.

As Kempke scrolled through the photos on his laptop, he stopped at one showing a young soldier standing by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

"Mike Sutter,'' Kempke said. "A good man. A good soldier.''

Sutter was the only member of the 745th EOD to die during the unit's employment. Last year, on the day after Christmas, Sutter tried to defuse one of the IEDs - improvised explosive devices - that have taken the lives of so many on military convoys in Iraq. The weapon blew up, killing the 28-year-old soldier from Illinois.

"He just knelt down, and it went off,'' Kempke said.

At 51 years old, Kempke was one of the most experienced weapons detonation specialists on the ground in Iraq. He learned his dangerous business in the 1970s, when he was a Marine. After graduating high school in his native Euclid, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, he went straight into the Marine Corps and became an ordnance specialist.

The last six years of his Marine Corps service were spent as a drill instructor. After he left the service, he moved to Cincinnati to be near his father, whom he had not known as a child.

But he missed military life and joined an Ohio National Guard unit based in Hamilton. When he saw an opening posted for a spot in the 745th EOD, he jumped, even though it meant a 61/2-hour drive to Camp Grayling, Mich., for his once-a-month weekend Guard drills.

"EOD is an elite group; it is not easy to get in,'' Kempke said. "I had a leg up with my Marine experience.''

In fall 2002, Kempke's Michigan National Guard unit - one of only six EOD units in the Guard - was sent to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where the EOD soldiers spent their days checking vehicles coming in and out of the ranch.

In April 2003, the 745th EOD was sent to Iraq. There, it joined a team of active-duty and Guard units that, so far, have destroyed 3.1 million pieces of ordnance and 7.5 million pounds of explosives.

Soldiers in EOD units cannot be colorblind, claustrophobic or allergic to explosives, Kempke said. They must be physically capable of maneuvering in a 70-pound bomb suit.

"It's a demanding business,'' Kempke said. "You have to stay in shape. I'm the old man in the outfit, so I work out and keep myself fit. The young guys look at me and say, 'If that old man can do, so can I.' ''

EOD soldiers begin their education by learning to recognize "every piece of ordnance made by any country on earth,'' Kempke said.

Finding and destroying ordnance has been a particular challenge in Iraq, Kempke said, because the Iraqi insurgents are constantly creating new ways to disguise weapons, particularly the roadside bombs.

"They started hiding bombs in dead animals. One time, we had to blow up a dead cow. Somebody saw wires coming out of it. Sure enough, there was a bomb inside.''

Kempke knows his unit has saved lives.

Kempke also knows that he and his unit could be called to active duty again in Iraq. If so, he is ready.

"People hear about the bombs that go off,'' Kempke said. "What they don't know is that for every one that explodes, another 20 were destroyed before they could do any harm. I take some pride in that.

"It's a dangerous business, but EOD technicians get $150 a month extra pay," Kempke said with a laugh. "A whole $150. Wouldn't you want to do that for an extra $150 a month?''

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com