THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 23, 1994 TAG: 9406230710
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940623 LENGTH: DUCK
And most owners of the hundreds of new beachfront mansions probably didn't even realize what a minefield they were buying into:
{REST} Beneath the half-million dollar homes, freshly painted gazebos and oceanside Jacuzzis, an arsenal of unexploded weapons lay buried beneath the sand.
Tourists tramped over high-explosive rockets while visiting the town's research pier. Workers unwittingly drove atop live practice bombs. Hundreds of visitors pocketed pieces of corroded ordnance.
From now on, people will have to search harder for the rusty relics.
And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will rest much easier.
On Wednesday, 15 Marines completed a three-week, $10,000 sub-surface sweep of a former Navy bombing range at the Corps' Duck Research Facility.
Chief Warrant Officer II John Little, of Cherry Point's explosive ordnance disposal team, said it was the most extensive bomb removal project the Marines have ever undertaken - both in terms of the scope of the search and the number of weapons removed.
``We knew there were a lot of ordnance out here. But we had no idea we would find as much as we did,'' Little said as his squad members took down their canvas tents and headed back to base. ``We found about twice as much as we expected. We could spend another year here and still not get it all. I hope we get a chance to come back and clear some more of the area.''
Using hand-held, $21,000 military metal detectors known as ``ordnance locators,'' the bomb squad worked from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, clearing a 330,000-square-foot area - about the size of eight football fields - that stretches from sound to sea.
They dug down to two feet deep and recovered five unexploded rockets, 22 live bombs, a World War II 30-caliber machine gun, 1,438 dud bombs and more than 20 tons of metal weapons casings.
``Most of these were only practice bomb signals. But they would blow your face off, no problem - fire, flames, the whole works,'' Little said. ``Any one of these ordnance could kill you. They're all explosive hazards. One wrong dig and they could've gone off.''
From 1941 to 1970, Navy and other military aircraft used a 176-acre area on the north end of Duck as a target bombing range. About 3 percent of the weapons dropped never exploded. Others were improperly made, and would not be able to explode. Most of the bombs removed from the current Pier property were World War II-era. Some are the type still being used today.
``We did a similar sweep just on the surface last year, and a private contractor removed about eight tons of scrap metal,'' said Army Corps Pier Chief William Birkemeier. The private firm was paid $100,000 for its above-ground work. ``This project went much deeper and removed a lot more. We'll feel better about laying cable, digging trenches and adding underground computer lines now.''
In a portable machine shop beneath a gray-green canopy, Marines from Cherry Point, Camp Lejeune and Beaufort, S.C., sorted weapons their squad members dug from the sand. They set a bullet-proof glass at one open end of the tent. A lathe-like vice held bombs on the other side. Then, the men removed explosive cartridges from the weapons by turning a hand-held metal crank.
Defused ordnance was marked with blue spray paint and set aside for scrap. Unexploded bombs and live rockets were placed in a pile. At noon, the Marines buried the 27 still-live weapons in a sand dune near the pier, cleared sunbathers from a 1,600-foot stretch of beach, and added 20 pounds of plastic explosives.
Then, they detonated the remaining weapons in a single blast.
Sooty smoke soared 50 feet in the air. Pier pilings shook above the sea. And a gaping hole was all that was left of the formerly underground arsenal.
``We wanted to do this as a training exercise. But we also hope by taking a proactive approach to this problem, we'll save a lot of driving time,'' said Little, whose squad is responsible for ordnance removal in 17 northeastern North Carolina counties. ``We get an average of 10 to 12 emergency calls per year from people who find bombs on this part of the Outer Banks. That's a four-hour drive from Cherry Point. Hopefully, now that number will decrease.''
Birkemeier said the sub-surface sweep has helped him feel much better about his federal facility.
``You live here 10 years, nothing goes off in your backyard, so you tend to forget there are so many bombs out there,'' the pier chief said. ``Now, we can dig with confidence in the area we work in. And at least what's left out there is safely buried away from the public.''
by CNB