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Posted in these groups: 
Explosives
EOD: Explosive Ordnance Disposal
Laos
Vietnam War20th Support Cmd (CBRNE)
Explosives EOD: Explosive Ordnance Disposal Laos Vietnam War20th Support Cmd (CBRNE)
Posted 6 y ago
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We didn't work with the Mine Action Center at Camp Eagle in Bosnia, but we stopped an BS'd with the Army EOD Major that ran it. Lots of work to do all over. Every time we (ran with the Army EOD teams at Camp McGovern) cleared UXOs there the locals were ecstatic that they could continue to rebuild and start/resume farming. Very grateful people. Nice to see and feel that you made a difference in their lives.
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SGT (Join to see)
That's awesome. I think my age and lack of media coverage makes it easy to forget about the incidents in Laos. If I were a tech, I'd look into working with these guys. Is that Army MAJ on RP ? You should DM him the thread to see if he wants to add any additional info on the group.
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TSgt David L.
SGT (Join to see) - You know, I've forgotten his name. One of the other guys might remember it. This was 1996 I think. Maybe '97. They worked with reps from the UN MAG and other NGOs. They train folks to be deminers. No EOD or Combat Engineer experience needed. Most of what goes on is the MAG and NGOs teaching indigenous people how to do it. There are contract deminers of course.
Most of them are pretty simple. Depending on what they were protecting there may have been AT mines stacked with BT/anti lift devices. Surrounded by patterns of AP mines.
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and surrounding countries have the actual UXO from small sub-munitions up to 500 and larger bombs. Obviously requiring more knowledge and skill.
Most of them are pretty simple. Depending on what they were protecting there may have been AT mines stacked with BT/anti lift devices. Surrounded by patterns of AP mines.
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and surrounding countries have the actual UXO from small sub-munitions up to 500 and larger bombs. Obviously requiring more knowledge and skill.
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Just a side note - no more 20th Support Command, it's been reorganized into 20th CBRNE Command
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SGT (Join to see)
Thanks. You're right.
SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4", can you update this.
Source: https://www.cbrne.army.mil/
That looks weird but does make a lot more sense.
SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4", can you update this.
Source: https://www.cbrne.army.mil/
That looks weird but does make a lot more sense.
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That brought back lots of memories and I could tell lots of stories but I will limit it to this one. Every morning just before daylight I took my platoon out to clear a 5 mile stretch of HWY 1 of mines and booby traps before we opened it for traffic. We also had a program where we would pay the local people for the unexploded ordnance they found. As a result, they found the ordinance off the road and we paid them a set fee, based on size, and exploded them. That worked well except when the children started bringing us new unfired ordinance from the S. Vietnamese or Viet Cong Army.
I remember once, during my first month there, a young boy came running towards me with an unexploded artillery shell he picked up near the road. I frantically waved at him to stop and put it down carefully. I had not learned it yet but the waving I was doing was a signal in Vietnam to "come here". Nothing happened but it scared the hell out of me!
I remember once, during my first month there, a young boy came running towards me with an unexploded artillery shell he picked up near the road. I frantically waved at him to stop and put it down carefully. I had not learned it yet but the waving I was doing was a signal in Vietnam to "come here". Nothing happened but it scared the hell out of me!
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SGT (Join to see)
Great story, sir. Maybe that now man is in one of their videos. Wouldn't that be special?
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