Anna and I were witness to history in the making (or rather destruction) this weekend. For those who don’t already know, there are a number of Vietnam era munitions (read: bombs) stored here at Andersen AFB. When these weapons reach the end of their service life, they are removed from our inventory and destroyed. This typically means putting them on a ship and sending them back to the mainland. However, since they are so old, there are some that are not stable enough to safely make the long voyage. So, that’s where we come in. Our expolsive ordinance disposal (EOD) flight was called in to destroy these munitions locally.
Anna and I were able to tag along and watch the process.
Here we are with da bomb.
A close up of the 750 pound bomb.
Our EOD range is perhaps one of the prettiest anywhere. Not to worry though, there are PLENTY of environmental protections in place to make sure we don’t harm the environment. Having spent a year working as an environmental program manager, I can safely say that the Air Force is doing well in protecting our natural environment on Guam.
Here’s where the bombs are placed.
A front-end loader is used to carry the bomb from the trailer to deposit as close to the limestone cliff as possible.
Here’s the view out from the beach to Pati Point.
It looks so small and benign, doesn’t it??
Anna even got to sit in the HMMWV (AKA Humvee) for a while. 🙂
Once we got 6,500 feet away, we found a good vantage point to watch the explosion from.
Finally, after two and a half hours of waiting, we got to see…
BOOM.
After the explosion, the plan was to repeat this process three more times that day. Unfortunately, when they got back to the site, so much of the cliff had come down, they had to wait until Monday to clear it out and repeat the process. It’s a long process to get everything set and make sure it’s completely safe. It’s the right thing to do, but makes for a rather anti-climactic finish.
It was a blast nonetheless. 🙂
–Jim
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Our Family Story.