I bet they bill us (the US) for it.
I bet we also pay the bill.
Well, for example, if it’s a US made bomb, there’s no point in going through the historical EOD files to look up how to defuse a German 250 kg bomb with a type 17 fuse.
More Cafe Society territory, but has there ever been a short story (or a real life occurrence) of, say, a French infantryman having a narrow miss with a dud bomb, only to have his grandson or great grandson blown up by the bomb that was intended for him?
Cause that would be, like, poetic and stuff.
The problem here, as it pertains to the Iron Harvest mentioned upthread, is that many of those shells are actually filled with toxic crap - chlorine, mustard gas, phosgene… So they can’t really blow that stuff up then and there because it could contaminate the ground & seep into the water table or worse : aerosolize and drift to the next town over.
And since we’re talking century old shells rusted beyond all recognition, identifying which are the *very *bad ones from the merely crap news is non-trivial. Which doesn’t prevent farmers from just digging them up and putting them by the side of the road as Somebody Else’s Problem :p.
The death toll is up to eight now after parts of a three-year-old girl were found.
And they’ve found another one in an industrial estate over on our Eastern Seaboard. This one they’re trying to figure out how to defuse properly.
Hey, did we ever find out what that metal sphere was?
Hey Tripler, just in case you have not heard this lately, Thanks!
It was some sort of tank ( maybe liquid helium ) from a disintegrated spacecraft.
Something that surprised me the first time I saw a video of Tedax (EOD) in action was that the news always talk about “defusing” the explosives, something which sounds like a clock getting stopped when it shows 007. As has been mentioned, a lot of the time what they do is blow it up under controlled conditions. That’s got to be one weird job: on one hand you get to blow stuff up, and on the other you’re trying to cause the smallest possible bang.
Indeed. Also, didn’t “Defused” used to be spelled “Defuzed”?
Being married to an EOD tech and surrounded by others for nearly 5 years I can attest there’s certain types of people who enjoy this work. And while this article is a parody…it’s also dead on. potty language
Okay, I was thinking of a different mysterious hollow sphere.
By coincidence, I just saw the excellent Israeli movie Beaufort, in which a local commander cannot understand why they send in a bomb specialist instead of just blowing the thing up.
Thank you for your service.
I have heard it also has caused a strain on international relations at times when say the Germans find a British or American bomb under what was then a residential area or vise versa. It doesnt take long for old memories to come back.
Ah, yer welcome guys. There are perks to the job, believe me. $150 a month extra in ‘demo pay’. Plus, I get all the chicks.
Tripler
Have I told you? My gal is the bomb!
Sometimes I think there are UXOs buried absolutely everywhere. A year or two ago, some construction workers dug up a pair of old mortar shells underneath the playground at the elementary school I went to in the early 90’s in Japan. Still not sure how I feel about that.
Met an EOD officer years ago who claimed that his preferred tool for defusing bombs is an M14 rifle. Set up behind a nice rock a few hundred meters away and start plinking at it until something happens.
Thanks, Tripler, for your posts and your service.
A Civil War shell killed a collector in 2008: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/05/02/virginia-man-killed-in-civil-war-cannonball-blast/
Tripler, did you ever get that new hat with the farts and darts?
Oh sure, you can SMUD stuff (Standoff MUnitions Disruption), which is pretty good for submunitions on an airfield, or sitting a mile away from a Mk 80-series. Either way, you’re looking to initiate a low-order detonation or deflagration. I don’t recommend it for most things though.
I did! My lovely wife got it for me as a Christmas present. I’d been meaning to get a formal picture done with it.
Tripler
Dang man, if yer gonna SMUD, go big or go home. Go M107 Barrett big.