UXO Claimed to be Inert

In the past, some EOD personnel often told civilians that the ordnance recovered was inert. These innocent white lies comforted the civilians and made the military look better. However, because the emergency EOD units usually deal with the ordnance item that was unearthed and do not initiate a full-scale cleanup, this practice of deception throws other governmental agencies, like the EPA or state, off the track and can result in very bad stuff still buried. 

EOD training is often incomplete. Eor example, it is usually given by one branch of service for their ordnance and only for current inventory items. Thus, EOD teams responding to a call for assistance from police may encounter ordnance unfamiliar to them (i.e., the Dover AFB EOD encountering a World War I field artillery 75-mm mustard shell). 

There are also practice bombs. In the author s experience, they were seldom used. Indeed, many of the current confrontations over closing active ranges result from the resounding military chorus that they must practice with live ordnance. There is a logical synapse between ordnance called inert when found by civilians and the need to practice with live ordnance. 

Two types of explosive filler can be confused with inert fillers. Recently, eleven 500-pound bombs were found buried in a Baltimore shipyard. They were examined and determined by EOD personnel to be filled with cemenL (Perhaps this was a logical conclusion, as only an idiot would bury 500-pound bombs in a shipyard. Then again, digging holes is a good job for someone of lower intelligence.) At any rate, amatol looks exactly like concrete. The oidy field way to tell the difference is to gently break off a piece, take it a little away, and light it. (Hint Concrete does not bum.) Nevertheless, there was no report that such a test was performed on these bombs. Videotape the bum-test for your trial, in case you decide to call them concrete, and ship them away to the local dump. 

Nitrostarch was also used in wartime as a bomb explosive. It looks like flour in fact, it is flour with the additional spice of nitrogen. And some spice it is Funny how words like cement and flour, often used to describe inert ordnance, bring to mind other words like liars and fools.  

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