Bombs Away Inc.

Bombs Away Inc. has spent more than two decades as Valparaiso’s specialty outfitter for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal community, a niche the shop has occupied since the company was established in the mid-2000s. Set on South John Sims Parkway, the veteran-owned, locally owned shop sells itself, accurately, as one of the largest sources anywhere for EOD-themed memorabilia, apparel, and gear, describing its own online catalog as the largest EOD memorabilia store on the internet. Its location is no accident: Valparaiso sits right next to the Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal at Eglin Air Force Base, the joint-service school that trains EOD technicians for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Few towns anywhere have a deeper day-to-day connection to the EOD mission, and Bombs Away has built its business squarely around serving that community of students, instructors, and the veterans who came through the schoolhouse decades earlier.

The shop’s product range goes far beyond a rack of t-shirts. Walk the aisles, or browse online, and you will find EOD-branded apparel for men, women, and kids, oxidized and anodized pins and coins in gold and subdued finishes, embroidered patches, custom flight suit patches, and unit-specific merchandise tied to individual EOD companies. Custom embroidery is a core part of the business, letting service members and units order gear stitched to their own specifications rather than settle for generic designs, a service that matters in a military community where unit pride runs deep and every patch tells a story about a deployment or a graduating class.

Beyond apparel and pins, Bombs Away stocks a wide range of novelty and collector items that reflect EOD’s particular sense of humor and camaraderie, including hot sauce bundles, koozies, shot glasses, and even a hand-grenade-shaped pocket knife, alongside more solemn memorial items honoring EOD technicians lost in the line of duty. The shop’s ties to specific units show up in details like dedicated hats and gear for the 71st and 52nd Ordnance companies, evidence of a customer base that includes both active-duty techs training or stationed at Eglin and the veterans and retirees who want to stay connected to the community after they hang up the bomb suit for good.

For visitors to the Emerald Coast, Bombs Away is an unusual but genuinely worthwhile stop, a chance to bring home a piece of the military culture that shapes this entire stretch of the Panhandle, from Eglin’s runways to the EOD memorial markers scattered around Okaloosa County. It also makes a meaningful gift stop for anyone with a service member or veteran in the family, particularly one connected to EOD, munitions, or bomb disposal work, and collectors of military patches and pins will find a depth of inventory here that is hard to match anywhere else on the coast. The shop keeps regular weekday hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and stays closed on weekends, so plan a stop earlier in the week if Bombs Away is on your Valparaiso itinerary alongside Discovery Dive World and the town’s other small, locally owned shops strung along John Sims Parkway.