EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I own Rifle Range #4 on Camp Fanin, which was a WWII replacement training base open from 1942 to 1945. It covered 14,000 acres and they trained 100,000 troops every three months. The range made kind of a half circle all facing in towards the middle. They had cannons, grenades, rockets and of course, rifle fire going off almost every day. Once the US military owns or uses a piece of land, they are responsible for it for all eternity. They send out teams all the time to walk and inspect the land. They have been there twice since I bought my place in 2003. They haven't found anything on my land, but on my neighbors land, they have found quite a few bazooka and rocket grenades. Mostly they look rusted out, but they do not take any chances. Everything they find, they blow up with plastic explosives. They just put it on top of what they find, go back a safe distance and boom!!! It's fairly dull. Not a big deal after you've seen it the first time. Farther out a couple miles away they have found some fairly big canon rounds. It seems that they are either duds or practice rounds. No way of knowing for sure. They buried themselves into the ground back in the 40's and over the decades work their way back up to the surface. I've only seen pictures, but depending on the size of the round, they just start coming out like a plant growing, or it's just all there sitting on the ground like an Easter egg.
According to the guys who come out, the explosives inside the bombs and other stuff turns to a very unstable nitroglycerin type substance. It doesn't take very much of it to cause injury if it goes off in your hand after disturbing it. They dill not touch it or try to remove it. They just put the explosives over it and blow it up where it is. First thing you do when you find something is call the sheriff or constable. Then they get in touch with the local bomb disposal team. Usually the game wardens show up too. I don't know why, but they are always there. Sometimes the Army guys come out, or one of their contractors.
As far as I know, nobody has been hurt by anything out here. The injuries that I was told about where from all over the country. There are tens of thousands of properties that they are responsible for, so in the grand scheme of things, odds are pretty low that anything will happen.
Some of the things I've heard about was from the Water Department guys. They have dug up belts of ammunition, grenades and all sorts of brass. Near the Hospital, which used to be called the Tuberculous Center, then found cases of dynamite. There was a Sherman Tank pulled out of the woods about 20 years ago with everything intact. There was another one next to it with a tree growing up through the middle of it that they left behind. That made the local news!!! There where German POW's kept here too, and before they could go home, they had to walk the base to make sure there was nothing dangerous out there. Since they wanted to go home, they did it rather quickly, and not very thoroughly. The Army also created a lake along one of the creeks and used the bottom of it to bury tons of equipment. Everything from bed frames to jeeps are down there.
After they closed the base they offered to return the land from those they took it from for the same price they paid for the land. Most people had already moved away, and others had already spent the money and didn't have it to buy it back. They auctioned off the land to the highest bidders in parcels.
Eddie
According to the guys who come out, the explosives inside the bombs and other stuff turns to a very unstable nitroglycerin type substance. It doesn't take very much of it to cause injury if it goes off in your hand after disturbing it. They dill not touch it or try to remove it. They just put the explosives over it and blow it up where it is. First thing you do when you find something is call the sheriff or constable. Then they get in touch with the local bomb disposal team. Usually the game wardens show up too. I don't know why, but they are always there. Sometimes the Army guys come out, or one of their contractors.
As far as I know, nobody has been hurt by anything out here. The injuries that I was told about where from all over the country. There are tens of thousands of properties that they are responsible for, so in the grand scheme of things, odds are pretty low that anything will happen.
Some of the things I've heard about was from the Water Department guys. They have dug up belts of ammunition, grenades and all sorts of brass. Near the Hospital, which used to be called the Tuberculous Center, then found cases of dynamite. There was a Sherman Tank pulled out of the woods about 20 years ago with everything intact. There was another one next to it with a tree growing up through the middle of it that they left behind. That made the local news!!! There where German POW's kept here too, and before they could go home, they had to walk the base to make sure there was nothing dangerous out there. Since they wanted to go home, they did it rather quickly, and not very thoroughly. The Army also created a lake along one of the creeks and used the bottom of it to bury tons of equipment. Everything from bed frames to jeeps are down there.
After they closed the base they offered to return the land from those they took it from for the same price they paid for the land. Most people had already moved away, and others had already spent the money and didn't have it to buy it back. They auctioned off the land to the highest bidders in parcels.
Eddie
