/johnny
Fort Hood officials have to chase brass pickers off ranges and out of the impact area all the time.
If they were called "running targets" there would be no problem.
Blow their stupid asses straight to hell!
Situtation calls for the three Ss.
Pardon me for asking the obvious question, but why is the military leaving huge quantities of valuable scrap metal lying on the ground, while our government forks over welfare checks, food stamps, and housing subsidies to unskilled workers who “can’t” find jobs? Can’t we send able-bodied people around these sites with metal detectors, during non-combat training times, to pick up the scrap and call in reports of unauthorized intruders? Pay them 50% of the proceeds from the scrap, use the rest to cover admin costs and return any extra funds to the military.
I’ve seen some duds (inerts?) scattered around Ft Irwin (China Lake?) that were so large they could’ve only come from ships. Never did figure out how they got there.
> ... halted combat exercises.
I think I found the problem.
Don’t do that.
Word will get around.
They all kinds of idiots on the Barry M. Goldwater range in southwestern Arizona. It is one of the nastiest places in the US, just North of the Mexican “Tortured Desert” (appropriately named), and also hosts the very rarely used “Hell’s Trail”.
Other than those who try to loot UXBs, a pretty insane activity, there are some murderous drug runners. For this reason, the US government hired a small band of Apaches to hunt stray Mexicans on the range. Finders keepers.
It is a place for the hardest of the hardcore, and even they are only allowed in with permission. Like Kennesaw, Georgia, it is pretty much the law that you have to be armed.
Nice of 'em to provide a moving practice target for the "air patrol".
After he was spotted by troops last December, the pickup truck driver barreled directly at a Marine, who fired five shots at the vehicle. The driver swerved, flipped over and spilled hundreds of dollars in collected metal. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital and later charged with attempted murder.
But definitley not the brightest bulb on the string. His family tree probably has only one branch.
It’s been going on since before 1976, when I joined the military.
This has been happening since the 60’s. The only real problem is when someone gets hurt. However, the person who gets hurt is the person who is scavanging the metals, so it is kind of a Darwin process.