An Explosive Day

An important facet of the United States government’s aid to Cambodia is to assist in detecting, extracting, and neutralizing unexploded ordnances (UXO). Although much progress has been made, Cambodia’s countryside is still rife with UXO left over from more than two decades of conflict. These UXO include undetonated bombs from the United States bombing campaign of North Vietnamese camps in Cambodia; further munitions in the initial war to prevent the Khmer Rouge from gaining strength; and extensive mines laid after the Vietnamese forced the Khmer Rouge out of power.

Last week, I went on a site visit to see some of the de-mining activities funded by the U.S. government. I got to see a bunch of cool machines, a huge amount of UXO, and a few explosions.

If an area is thick with vegetation, a machine called the Nemesis can chew through a bush in seconds. This machine can be operated remotely and withstand the blast of an anti-personnel mine.

With the vegetation gone, technicians with metal detectors move in to systematically sweep the area. The metal detectors employ a special radar that can identify possible mines from random scraps of metal.

Or bomb-sniffing dogs are called in …

UXO that are found and can be safely removed are held at a storage site until they can be safely disposed. The storage site we visited had literally piles of UXO.

Some of these UXO are cut in two so that the interior explosive material can be extracted and remanufactured into small charges that are used to explode UXO in the field in a controlled manner. In the photo below, I’m holding a replica of one of the charges.

Finally, to end the day with a boom, we watched the charges blow up some anti-tank mines.