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My last 2-3 weeks at CCC (Kontum, RVN) I spent de-dudding the range!!! We had a bunker full of 2.75 FFs, that had failed to fire from the Cobras, and a bunch more damaged or otherwise corrupted ordinance. This stuff was everything from 60, 81, 4.2 mortar rounds to 40mm, hand grenades, and damaged ammo.
The Viets were tasked with the disposal, so they loaded up the Deuce & a Half + trailer up with this stuff to get rid of it. The LAST THING they loaded was the C4 and Det-Cord. Of course the FIRST THING off of the vehicles was what was loaded LAST!! They primed the C4, set it on the ground and then ubnloaded the vehicles, stacking all of the above ON TOP OF THE C4!!!
Needless to say, when it went off, it was all scattered over about 10 thousand squre meter area 100m X 100m. Since I was a short timer, opns were slow, I had had a propensity to mess with the demo and I was also qualified as a 12 (Combat Engineer) I was assigned the task of de-dudding!!!
I started off blowing everything in place. Then, after Billy Greenwood told me that I was not going to leave till it was cleared, I started moving anything that had a "Safety Device" still installed. This whole thing turned from being WOW THIS WILL BE FUN..to OH SHIT what have I gotten myself into. All went well and I even recruited a bunch of the Viets to help collect the UXO because they had to stay camped out on the range guarding the stuff until it was all gone.
Still amazed every day, that I ever saw my 23rd birthday!!!
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Martin sends.
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