As the UK’s first female bomb disposal expert, making life or death decisions was a routine part of the job for Lucy Lewis. She reveals how she learned to think like a bomber… and why she still checks under her car Lucy on her first mission, Operation Crabstick, in 1990, clearing 18 live wartime explosives at Eastleigh Airport This could be it,’ I mutter to myself. I am 26 years old, a duty bomb disposal officer, the first woman ever to be listed on the Operational Bomb Disposal Officer Roster, and this is my first emergency callout. We are on our way to investigate the report of a bomb found when a homeowner was digging in his garden.