Yellow Iron and UXO

snickerd3 · Jul 13, 2007

Some pictures from a UXO removal project.

Glass mine

some yellow iron

ceramic mine

Sorting

Guest · Jul 14, 2007

Cool stuff !!

I have been serving in some capacity as the State of FL coordinator for what we call emergency permits. These are permits that are issued to mostly US Military or Police/Sheriff Bomb Squads where energetic or explosive items have been discovered and pose an immediate threat to public safety. The items can range from unexploded commercial fireworks to illegal disposal of contractor demolition hardware to UXO from military ranges (Florida has numerous ACTIVE military ranges). The most recent emergency permit I helped issue was for Naval Air Station Pensacola - there was a discovery from an some expansion of the old cemetary located near the base housing. Many old compressed gas cylinders from WW II era were discovered through geophysical surveys. A contractor has analyzed the data and started removal, but an emergency permit was required for the 'overpressure' component.

I have been wanting to get more involved with UXO-type remediation, but it really is a highly specialized field with a few solid practioners. Definitely a tough nut to crack.

Thanks again for sharing.

JR

snickerd3 · Jul 16, 2007

SapperPE said:
Snickered, are you in the UXO remediation business? I would love to get into that field.

Nope. I am a state regulator. There has been extensive UXO remediation at one of my sites, an old ammunition plant. I have gotten to meet several generations of UXO techs though...the stories are great. I can always tell they are onsite working when I show up...the parking lot is full of big, pimped out pickup trucks.

Dleg · Jul 17, 2007

We do a lot of UXO work here in the Marianas - there is still thousands of rounds (!) leftover from WWII out in the jungles. Mostly stuff that was stockpiled for the invasion of Japan, but never used. The military tried to blow it in place in the late '40s, but mostly just scattered it around. Fortunately, there aren't any mines - just unused projectiles and grenades, mostly.

The UXO guys out here are really cool, too. The one main contractor is a former Navy EOD guy, and he always has young active duty EOD guys helping him out. Lots of great stories, like you said.