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Fort Myers, Florida - For unknown reasons, an old Navy training missile (specific nomenclature not known) ended up at Garden Street Iron and Metal Inc., a recycling scrap yard. A worker was blow-torching what appeared to look like a piece of corroded steel and aluminum pipe when sparks began to fly. Soon after the sparks appeared, smoke shot out of the device. A crane nearby was brought in to grab the cylindrical shaped item as it continued to burn.

The local fire department and Southwest Florida Bomb Squad were called in to inspect the item. Suspecting the item to be military ordnance, the Army's 766th EOD Unit, based at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, were asked to respond. The device was relocated and properly disposed of by the EOD unit. Reportedly, there were no numbers or markings on the UXO and it was not possible to identify what it was or where it came from or how long it had been there. From its condition, it was apparent that it had been there for many years.

Finding UXO in scrap yards is not unique to Florida or the States. Recently Scrap metal workers in Yantai, China discovered an unexploded Japanese bomb in a pile of scrap metal being off-loaded from a barge. The scrap was on its way to a nearby smelter when workers noticed the 660-pound bomb. The bomb was 4 feet in length and had markings that indicated it was dropped by a Japanese plane during WWII. The bomb was removed before it reached the smelter facility.

The Engineering Field Activity Northwest, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Poulsbo, Wash., awarded a $5.9M Task under the previously awarded Navy unexploded ordnance response (NURC). The task includes geophysical investigation, surface and subsurface clearance, and quality control certification of completion of UXO removal actions for operable Unit B-1 at the former Naval Air Facility on Adak Island, Alaska. The work is expected to be completed by September 2004.

Employment opportunities listed on UXOInfo.com:

American Recruiting, Inc. is looking to fill a number of contract positions for UXO personnel in CONUS and OCONUS locations.

Concurrent Technologies Corporation has immediate full-time openings for UXO Engineers in its Johnstown, PA office.

Check out UXOInfo.com's Help Wanted Section for the details regarding these employement opportunities.

MUNICH, Germany -Two WWII grenades were uncovered at the construction site of Munich's new soccer stadium. Police stopped traffic for more almost 2 hours while the grenades were safely destroyed in a controlled detonation. UXO found around constructions sites is common occurrence in Europe, much of which is littered with UXO from WWII. In Germany alone, dozens of UXO are uncovered each year, including some buried beneath buildings. The new stadium is set to host the opening match of the World Cup Final in 2006.

This is not the first time UXO was uncovered from a stadium. In 1998, a 1,000-pound bomb was found buried 3 feet below the ground near the halfway line at Borussia Dortmund's stadium and in 2002, a 500-pound bomb was uncovered beneath a section of Berlin's Olympic Stadium during a remodeling effort.

Last month UXOInfo.com reported on a WWII UXO found at a construction site of a train station in Numazu, Japan. Another WWII UXO was found, this time in Nagoya Japan. Approximately 2,600 residents had to be evacuated when a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force unit disposed of an the bomb. The U.S. 2,000 lbs bomb was found at a site where a factory once stood. It was buried about 6 feet below ground near a pier. The bomb was defused without incident. Finding WWII UXO is common in Japan.

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The Australian Government released a report stating that a deep-sea ordnance disposal site lying just over a mile northeast of the city of Townsville could contain greater quantities of chemical weapons then previously anticipated. Available archive records indicated that 700, 30kg mustard-filled chemical bombs and 320, 45kg mustard filled chemical bombs were dumped at the deep-sea site at the end of WWII. However, the report admitted that the data is likely to be incomplete, partly because of the lack of record keeping during the time the dumping occurred. Inventory records show that one chemical weapons depot stored nearly 16,000 M74A2 mustard filled bombs alone. Following the WWII, it is estimated that a large portion of those stocks had been dumped at sea because it had not been used during combat operations. The report, estimated that at the U.S and Australian military dumped over 21,000 tons of chemical warfare munitions and containers of agent into Australian seas at the end of WWII. Ordnance included aircraft bombs of various weights filled with phosgene and mustard agent and steel drums of various sizes filled with mustard agent. Mustard and phosgene were not the only chemical agents stored at the depots. Inventory records from 1943 show that U.S. weapon reserves at various depots also stored tear gas, lewisite and solid adamsite candles (toxic smoke).

WWII - German Depth Bombs - image from unknown deep sea dump site

The deep-sea dump area northeast of Townsville is several hundred fathoms deep and the risk to the public is estimated to be very minimal. Trawling boats that use the area have only pulled up two chemical UXO since the end of WWII.

Australia is not the only nation with deep-sea munitions sites. The U.S. and Canada also have deep-sea ordnance dump sites. U.S. Navy policy during the 40's and 50's authorized the dumping of ordnance at sea as a means of approved disposal. An example of such guidance can be viewed on the policy page of UXOInfo.com.

To date the Navy has been mostly silent on water ranges and deep-sea dump sites which has not gone un-noticed. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) has documented in several reports that the Navy has not included water ranges in their environmental liability estimates.

UXOInfo.com is collecting data and information on deep-sea munitions dump sites. If you have any such information on locations or technologies being developed or deployed to locate and clear deep-sea sites please pass it along to be added to UXOinfo.com

Munition of the Month- March 2004: Grenade, Hand MKII, Fragmentation
	New Feature - Munition of the Month
	Introducing a new feature in the monthly UXO e-newsletter - the Munition of the Month. This month's munition is the Obsolete MKII Fragmentation Hand Grenade. Each month we will showcase a new munition (suggestions welcome).
	Filler Type and Weight
	55 grams of TNT - High Explosive. The TNT was either flaked or granular.
	Body Type and Weight
	The grenade body is made of cast iron and is designed to fragment when depolyed. The greande weighs 630 grams.
	Source
	FM 23-30
Description
The MKII grenade is considered obsolete since it is no longer in use by the military. The grenade was popular during WWII and was probably one of the most prevalent fragmentation grenades in the U.S. inventory at the time. Sometimes referred to as a "pineapple grenade" because of its pineapple shaped perforated body that was designed to fragment upon detonation. The grenade had a pyrotechnic delay that was good for 3 seconds. MKII grenades have been found at numerous FUDS and other sites around the U.S., especially from sites that were closed or abandoned over 40 years ago.

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Mulvaney's On-Line Ordnance Technical Information System

Technical data on ordnance including filler information, explosive weights, photos and schematics. The developers of UXOInfo.com have completed the design of the technical ordnance information database. Data from ordnance technical manuals and publications (unclassified - publically available) will be uploaded into the database for easy access. For now check out the Grenade category for a good sample. Look for more ordnance to be added in the future. Also, UXOInfo.com is looking for more photos and images to populate the database, so please consider donating images and pictures to UXOInfo.com.

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When it comes to UXO we consider ourselves as the consultant's consultant. Let the developers and researchers from UXOInfo.com assist your team in completing your UXO related projects. We specialize in providing independent quality reviews of UXO related documents and deliverables including marketing proposals and business development plans. We maintain an extensive library of UXO related studies and documents that can meet your research needs. Our services include:

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