On 20 Jul 2004 at 16:19, Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com wrote: > unexploded ordinance. Come to find out today, they cleared it by > visual inspection only. I had just assumed that they cleared it with > metal detectors and the whole 9 yards. That was back in the 40's or > 50's. There are still mines from WWI under parts of France. One is a huge one - a gazzillion kilos of ordinance in an underground chamber - it was well documented in every way except location. They know roughly where it is, but are afraid to dig. At least your stuff isn't under the local pub! Someone was killed in Italy a couple of days ago when he showed a friend some ancient ordinance he found in his yard. Military is definitely better at war than at peace. When I sailed the Chesapeake in '77, we headed out one early morning into one of the thickest fogs I'd ever seen. We knew that there was a target area to the east of our course, but were only vaguely aware of where we were relative to it. After a bit, we heard a thump off the port beam and seconds later a whuump! to starboard. Somewhere inland they were firing shells and we hoped they were good at getting their range. Shelling continued for several minutes, but it seemed like a lot longer. That's one reason I prefer paddling Georgian Bay - the only bombing runs are from seagulls and Canada geese, and the results of that can be washed off. Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jul 20 2004 - 15:56:36 PDT
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