Army in Florida Search for WWII Bombs

[unhappycamper]

Army in Florida Search for WWII Bombs
January 09, 2009
Orlando Sentinel

In two weeks, teams from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will visit several neighborhoods in east Orlando and east Orange County, Fla., looking for signs that the military left hazardous pollution or bombs from World War II, when the area was a test site.

A standing room-only crowd of about 350 people packed the Engelwood Community Center on Thursday night to hear Corps officials explain: Why here? Why now?

"We've lived there for years," said Genevieve Sullivan, a resident of the Azalea Park neighborhood. "Why are they just showing up now?"

Randy Curtis, a project manager with the Corps, said questions about the former Orlando Army Airfield, Toxic Gas and Decontamination Yard site -- north of Curry Ford Road on either side of Goldenrod Road -- came to light during the Corps' investigation of another bombing range.

In the 1940s, when the land was swamp and Florida scrub, the Army used about 2,100 acres as a toxic-gas yard. Soldiers were trained to protect themselves and to decontaminate their equipment from combat gases, including mustard gas and Lewisite, a deadly arsenic compound that smells like gardenias.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/army-in-florida-search-for-wwii-bombs.html?col=1186032310810

[Ian David]

1. They really should also be searching for bears.