Fort Ord EOD

[Slick]

This link has an extensive slideshow of range ordnance, as found, after an apparent burn-off. An impressive display of mostly spent practice ordnance, with a still live speciman here and there. Lots of stuff is apparently dropped and lost as evidenced by numerous complete rounds.

http://www.fortordcleanup.com/ar_pdfs/AR-OE-0499G/Appendix_E.pdf

These photos were taken in the last months of 2003.

A question for the EOD guys: Is it SOP to do a burnoff of vegetation prior to range clearance? Or is this just taking the opportunity to do some clearing after a tracer or some such started a fire?

 

[EODGUY]

I am an old timer EOD guy, but when we had the opportunity we would burn off the range if the shot had items we thought might either start a fire or result in kickouts that would need to be located. Better to have a controlled fire than a spontaneous one. Also easier to see kickouts when sweeping. Only problem was a range burn required coordination and post approval with fire equipment nearby just in case. That often was not possible in a timely manner so burns became the spontaneous kind. No sure what is done today, but from talking to some current techs there isn't much range clearance going on because they are either deployed, just getting back from deployment, or ramping up for deployment.

 

[Taber10]

Burning vegetation is a good move before a surface sweep in some cases, allowing greater visibility. However, at Fort Ord, and other California ranges, it was stopped as a general procedure because California environmentalists claimed that toxic and carcinogenic fumes were being released during the range burns due to garbage, such as plastic bags, and even some types of munitions. As stated, most range work, for both operational range maintenance and for environmental remediation is now being done by commercial contract. Part of the reason is the endless deployment of our EOD assets to Iraq and now Afghanistan.

During my early EOD days, in the mid-70's, range burns were done as a forestry management tool, preventing overgrowth and accumulation of dry material that would fuel any accidental fire. The Forestry guys where I was stationed always sought our help; we knew the range, we had four wheel drive vehicles, and we could assist with the inevitable discovered ordnance.

 

[Garand]

Frequently while doing a variety of explosive work we start fires. Generally during the dry months we have a fire fighting team attached to our site, just in case. When the prairie gets burnt off we are always finding additional work!

 

[bacarnal]

As Taber10 implied, Kalifornia is a different state, but another reason for not burning off ranges at Ft. Ord is because of the mutated poison oak that is prevalent there, which DOES give off noxious/poisonous fumes. A lot of times the guys working clearance ops there have to work in level "C" or modified level "B" (Tyvec over suit, gloves and some kind of breathing mask). Different anecdotal reasons for the poison oak being there, but I can't find proof. Cheers, Bruce.

 

[V40]

The Peoples Republik of Kalifornia. Leave it to them to start presidence. Also the same country that allows farmers to starve and cannot make both ends meet, all because of a tiny Fu___g fish that is on the endangerd species list. The land of fruits and nuts.

Mark

 

[BOMBSaway1980]

This poison oak is some really bad stuff. Just horrible if you get it on you. Fort Ord is horrible for this stuff