Southhampton, United Kingdom A crew working on the London Road construction project discovered a UXO item buried at the site. The crew called the police who responded with technical support by a Royal Engineer unit. The area around the construction site was safely evacuated and secured. The UXO identified as a WWII era German 45-kg bomb (shown in the image below) was safely transported about 10 miles to Solent after it was safely uncovered.

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Lakewood, Colorado Munition debris including artillery shell remnants were found by a hiker on the Green Mountain open space public park have caused concern that UXO may exist in the area. The use of the area as an impact area dates back to the 1930s when a portion of Green Mountain was leased by the National Guard for artillery target practice for rounds fired from Camp George West in Golden.

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Azalea Park , Florida A homeowner called the police to report finding a munition item in his shed. The police arrived and identified that the munition was military ordnance. The EOD team from Patrick, AFB was called in to provide technical support. EOD identified that the round was live (specific size or type not reported) and safely transported the round to a local police firing range where it was safely detonated.

The incident is under investigation but authorities suspect that the UXO originated from a 2,100 acre WWII era practice range that once existed in the area that is now used for residential purposes. It's unknown how long the munition item was in the shed or who may have moved the munition to the shed.

Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc. (ITSI) is a national Engineering, Construction & Consulting firm based in Walnut Creek, California, (www.itsi.com). focusing on providing design-build infrastructure and environmental solutions for our clients. ITSI's clients include all branches of the Department of Defense in addition to municipal and commercial clients.

ITSI is seeking a Project Manager for either their corporate office in Walnut Creek, CA or our Denver, CO office for our Federal MMRP work.

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Lakeland, Florida a 9 year-old boy remains in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital as a result of an explosion that occurred in his home. The explosion reportedly occurred when the boy used a lighter on an improvised firework designed from a WWII era MK II hand grenade he was holding. The improvised firework was reportedly constructed by the boy's father. It all started when the boy's mother purchased an inert WWII era grenade from an auction house about two years ago. Allegedly the boy and his father decided that the grenade would make a great July 4th firework so they took the powder out of dozens of firecrackers and poured it into the empty grenade body and inserted a wick into it.

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The U.S. military has been concerned over the potential hazards caused by UXO dating back to when explosives and ordnance were first developed. The awareness of UXO issues greatly increased following the end of WWII as significant numbers of training ranges were closed and the properties were transferred outside of the War Department. Evidence of interest in technologies to detect and recover UXO during this time frame is highlighted in a letter found in the National Archives (thank you Rick Stauber for the donation) from the Ordnance Department to the Chief of Ordnance within the Army. The letter dated 17 January 1946, which can be viewed using the download link below, requests information on technologies that can be used to detect UXO at practice grenade ranges. The historic letter highlights a concern that "unexploded missiles [grenades] remain under a thin layer of loose earth as a result of nearby explosions".

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Position: Sr. Manager MMRP Programs (Director of UXO Programs)
Location: Denver, CO

Due to strong growth we are seeking to strengthen an executive leadership team by hiring a seasoned MMRP professional with experience in building and leading field based teams, responsible for UXO operations.

This exciting expansion position will provide the right candidate the opportunity to help develop and lead an organization that is anticipating 50% + annual growth rates. The MMRP Manager will have accountability for all major MMRP programs and associated personnel.

The initial structure will have 8 direct reports and all activities including: client liaison, P&L, proposals, logistics, project management, project scheduling, OSHA, health and safety, hiring, firing and personnel development will fall under this person's span of control.

The right candidate will be a process thinker and posses strong leadership and management skills. Additionally, the candidate will have technical domain expertise, operational skills, and well developed business experience necessary to run a multi-faceted $10M program.. They will have previous experience leading field based hi tech enabled UXO operations and will be adept at co-currently running multiple small to medium size military customer programs as well as building and developing teams and personnel.

Required competencies:

• Strong communication and interpersonal relationship development skills, adept at identifying and maintaining key intercompany relationships with other executive level personnel and for identifying and capitalizing on synergies available within other business lines
• Experienced in developing project management philosophies and processes and for driving profitable execution of military programs
• Understanding of the underlying MMRP technologies including remote sensing, geophysical and EOD methods and procedures.
• Solid people management skills and the ability to create work teams that encourage constructive collaboration to deliver innovative solutions
• Superior ability to identify and nurture technical talent and the ability to assess the skills of the organization on an ongoing basis to determine who has the ability to perform in current and future roles and which personnel need to be reassigned or removed to free bottlenecks ( who can play and who gets to stay)
• Ensure clear linkage between strategic initiatives and implementation.

Interested candidates should email their resume, complete with references to Jack Hamlin at hamlinj@enscicon.com.

Ystradgynlais, Wales workers at the Brecon household waste and recycling centre discovered a marine flare amongst the items turned in for recycling. The workers notified the police who responded with a military EOD team to remove the hazard from the facility. The munitions find was not the first find of its kind at the recycling facility. Just over a year ago, an unexploded artillery shell was found mixed in with other household waste. In a separate incident a few weeks later, detonators were discovered at another nearby recycling facility. No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.

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