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CHESTER, Va. (May 2) - Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics -- weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms. But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway. More than 140...

Virginia Man Killed In Civil War Cannonball Blast May 02, 2008 CHESTER, Va. — Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown. As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms. But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring...

WASHINGTON -- -- Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. They quickly pulled out a dozen cylinders, all of which appeared identical from a cursory glance, and hauled them along Bomber Boulevard to a waiting B-52 bomber. The airmen attached the gray missiles to the plane's wings, six on each side. After eyeballing the missiles on the right side, a flight officer signed a manifest that listed a dozen...

CAMP ELLIS, Iraq (March 7, 2007) -- Explosive Ordnance Disposal Marines attached to the California-based Battalion Landing Team 2nd Marines, 4th Marine Regiment have supported current operations in the Barwanah area by disposing of weapons and explosives found in caches throughout the area. To date, EOD has disposed of more than 2,000-plus pounds of weapons and explosives since operations began here in late November. According to Gunnery Sgt. Aaron M. Salyi, EOD chief from Combat Logistics Battalion 15 attached to BLT 2/4, the weeks in Barwanah have not slowed much since the beginning of operations. Though the weapons caches have...

It may not be quite what you expect - a team of Iraqi Kurds teaching explosives clearance techniques in the bombed-out villages of southern Lebanon - but here they are. Sharing the knowledge - a munitions training session The men have been flown out by the British charity Mines Awareness Group (MAG), the only non-commercial munitions clearance body in Lebanon, a country still littered with unexploded devices more than a month after the recent war with Israel. "Hundreds of thousands of civilian lives are at risk," said Nick Guest, MAG's Technical Operations Manager. "The important thing after this conflict, any...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 4, 2006) -- A line of tracers and a corkscrewing missile flash up from the ground a thousand feet below a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, which immediately takes evasive action. Trailing bright sparkles of light emit from its aft sections, as a gout of flame spits from its side-door machine gun. Saving the helicopter from enemy fire are the flying skills of its pilots, the deadly aim of its enlisted crew and an electronic countermeasure flare system. The job of maintaining the M2 .50-caliber machine guns and flares that are instrumental in the helicopter's survival belongs...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 1, 2006) -- More than 100 years have passed since the fastest pistol-drawing gunfighters dominated the saloons and streets of the American West. Halfway around the world, a different kind of gunfighter is leaving its own mark on insurgent forces in Iraq's own wild west, the Al Anbar Province of Iraq. Known as the Gunfighters, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, have been patrolling the Iraqi skies with UH-1N Huey and AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters for nearly seven months, ready to fire their deadly suite of weapons...

Paperweight Explodes, Severs Teacher's Hand Tuesday , April 04, 2006 VENTURA, Calif. — A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug, authorities say. The 5-inch-long shell exploded Monday while Robert Colla was teaching 20 to 25 students at an adult education class. Part of Colla's right hand was severed and he suffered severe burns and minor shrapnel wounds to his forearms and torso, fire Capt. Tom Weinell said. No one else was injured. He was reported...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Dec. 6, 2005) -- Iraqi firefighters from the Rusafa Fire Station in east Baghdad turned over more than 200 rounds of unexploded ordnance to elements of Task Force Baghdad for destruction Dec. 1. The firefighters gave 65 artillery rounds and 143 mortar rounds to elements of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery. This is a continuing effort and partnership between the leadership of the Rusafa Fire Station and 1/9 FA to rid the area of unexploded ordnance and denying terrorists potential bomb-making material. "On Nov. 3, we secured a slightly smaller, but still significant, load of munitions...

FAIRCHILD AFB, Wa., Nov. 16, 2005 — Explosive ordnance disposal personnel worked hand-in-hand with multiple federal agencies at the Grand Coulee Dam, Oct. 4 - 6, for an exercise titled "Watchful Sentinel." "The focus of the exercise was to evaluate Special Response Forces standard operation procedures, along with coordination between the Special Response Forces and supporting agencies, via a series of realistic events," said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Burleigh, explosive ordnance disposal craftsman, 92nd Civil Engineering Squadron. "Some of the calls we respond to involve ordnance left behind in a deceased veteran's war chest. Other times, we may...

U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. David Diceglie, 42nd Infantry Division Artillery, holds some captured enemy ammunition at a cache site. Diceglie was one of a team of U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Liberty who supervised the destruction of caches like this one. Photo courtesy of 42nd Infantry Division Artillery Ordnance Disposal Reclaims Farmland, Saves Lives Unexploded ordnance in Iraq includes a wide assortment of artillery, rocket and mortar rounds and in some cases, anti-ship cruise missiles. By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Raymond Drumsta 42nd Infantry Division Public Affairs FORWARD OPERATING BASE SUMMERALL, BAYJI, Iraq, Oct. 27, 2005 — In...

WASHINGTON - Prepare to be shell-shocked: Ordnance experts are scrambling to defuse driveways that have the potential to explode. The U.S. Army is investigating incidents of unexploded World War I-era munitions showing up in clamshells used as paving material for driveways and parking areas in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The ordnance was dredged up over the past 18 months from the ocean floor during mechanical clam harvesting operations off the New Jersey coast, in the vicinity of Atlantic City, according to Robert Williams of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is conducting the probe. More than 300 munitions -...

Teams Measure Success by Lives Saved Explosive ordnance disposal personnel tackle a dangerous task; the demand for their expertise has increased for both military and civilian operations. One unit at Logistics Support Area Anaconda has the daunting task of getting up close and personal with the devices designed to kill soldiers. The 716th Ordnance Company is a 19-man unit with elements spread throughout Iraq minimizing the dangers to troops. “Our primary mission is to ensure the battlefield is safe for the warfighters,” said U.S. Army Master Sgt. John Bobich, explosive ordnance technician. “We go out and clear improvised explosive devices,...

Courtesy of U.S. Army Members of the team assist Sgt. Benjamin Park, a diver searching for a machine gun in the Tigris River. Rick Scavetta / S&S When a forklift fell in the Tigris River near Tikrit, Iraq, last week, divers from the 74th Engineer Detachment decided not to risk their lives in the fast moving current. Courtesy of U.S. Army Soldiers form the 74th Engineer Detachment dive team "Poseidon" begin searching a lake northeast of Baghdad for weapons of mass destruction. Drowned soldier not left behind TIKRIT, Iraq — A few weeks ago, soldiers from the 74th Engineer...

A search on google.com for "missing ordnance" and "stolen weapons" found page after page of articles and studies from around the world about this rampant problem. Israel. South Africa. The U.S. England, etc. And not just handguns and ammo, but missiles, grenades, launchers, even weapons grade uranium. All over the world weapons have been stolen or simply misplaced. Who has these weapons, and what are their intentions? And why hasn't anyone reported on just how bad the problem is. All you find are articles about individual incidents.

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 8/15/02 Unexploded Ordnance aplenty, First Iranian visit in Years, Unfair Burqa in Hot Summer, Bagram, Kabul, Kandahar, Lawyers Interfere with Justice, Demolition and Possible Transfer, Photos of Perps in Gaza, Shootout at Ein el-Hilweh ==Bagram, Afghanistan == In Bagram, 764th EOD Co. (Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company) Army soldiers are still destroying unexploded Russian-made RPG-7 rocket propelled grenades. In Bagram, at the runway there is bad weather. ==Kabul, Afghanistan == In Kabul, surveillance by SF and disdain by local forces as Iran's Khatami visits. This was the first visit to Afghanistan by an...