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Show A Touchy But Necessary Task... The U. S. Army lieutenant, lieuten-ant, accompanied by a staff Sergeant, stood on a small knoJl checking his wrist watch while waiting for the explosion that he knew was just minutes away. "This is going to be a big one," the young lieutenant lieu-tenant said to the sergeant at his side. "I hope it "destroys "des-troys all of 'em." The sergeant stared off toward the hazy foothills at a clump of boxes containing con-taining explosives, hut did not answer.' He just nodded his head. No, this, scene did not occur in the battle areas of Vietnam. It took place ast week at White Sands Missie Range near the foot-hils foot-hils of the San Andres mountains. The two men, First Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Ronald L. Collier and Staff Sergeant A. R. Smith, are members of the range's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) crew, and they were waiting for 85 boxes of plastic explosives to blow hundreds of pounds of potentially dangerous ordnance to smithereens. The "all of them" that Lieutenant Collier referred to while waiting for detonation deton-ation included 90mm shells fired onto the range during World War II, thousands of rounds of .50-caliber mach-, ine gun bullets, 20mm rounds, missile destruct packages, dynamite found at an old mine site on the range, and iother assortc-d ordnance. ; "I always feel better af-cer af-cer ont of these disposal-jobs, disposal-jobs, because I know we've removed a number of potentially po-tentially dangerous items from the range," Lieutenant Lieuten-ant Collier said after the resounding blast had pushed push-ed a small mushroom cloud over the blasting pit. "That blast may have saved a range worker's life or a souvenir hunter's hands and eyes." "Generally, adults are just like children," claim's Sergeant First Class John McCurry, supervisor of the five-man enlisted EOD crew at White Sands Missile Mis-sile Range. "When they see something shining or something different, they immediately want to touch it." On White Sands Missile Range this child-like impulse im-pulse can mam or kill you. Lieutenant Collier, officer in charge of the EOD detachment, de-tachment, tells of a rancher ranch-er in the northern extension exten-sion rea who stopped him one day toshow a missile part found while driving across the range. The rancher ran-cher had hauled the component com-ponent in his truck for two weeks before crossing paths with the EOD lieutenant. lieu-tenant. The rancher was correct. He had discovered a "missile "mis-sile part." But this "part" was a missile destruct package that had fallen into in-to a safety area. The package pack-age contained enough blasting blast-ing strength to easily blow the door from the rancher's ranch-er's pickup. Sergeant McCurry, a veteran vet-eran on nine years in explosives ex-plosives ordnance disposal work, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, shakes his head as he tells of finding find-ing a box of dynamite near an abandoned mine within the confies of the ' missile range. "The box was dated 1936, and the dynamte sticks had crystallized," SFC McCurry Mc-Curry said. "That box was as dangerous as a five-headed rattlesnake." Sergeant Smith, standing nearby, notes that a live shell was found near the Range's Noncommissioned Officers' Club a few mon- . ths ago, and that the EOD1 detachment is occasionally called to check war souvenirs souven-irs shipped or brought home from Vietnam. " shudder when thinking of the many homes throughout through-out the United States that are virtually ticking time bombs," Lieutenant Collier says. "There's many a live shell being usci ngnt now for a doo rstop or bookc nd. And how many duns and "fireplace mantels hold innocent in-nocent looking, but deadly, had grenades and time fuzes?" fuz-es?" All members of the disposal dis-posal squad agree on one poinb: do not touch any object ob-ject found on the range. Sergeant McCurry points out that many innocent looking objects found on the range are dangerous, if not deadly.. "An ordinary 'looking bolt which hojcs together stages of a missile, can cause untold un-told damage," McCurry says. "That bolt may look ordinary, but it contains ans explosive which detonates on command to separate missile stages. Range employes ard area residents, using the range on occasion, are asked to call the Military Police Desk Sergeant (Ph. 078 1234) if they find any object ob-ject that they think has dropped .from a missile The detachment's area of responsibility ranges from Green River, Utah, south to Socorro (Stallion Range Center) and the main post area. "All members of the EOD detachment here earn hazardous haz-ardous duty pay each month tor handling this stuff," says SFC McCurry. "Wfiy not let us earn our pay?" |