ABSTRACT
Military explosive ordnance has been utilized throughout the world for centuries. It continues to be discovered in various locations: former battleelds, along coastlines of failed deepwater disposal operations, military ranges, and the homes of souvenir hunters and collectors of military paraphernalia. Although some of the discovered ordnance may not contain explosives, much of it does, and this may indiscriminately detonate and kill those near it. Yes, American Civil War cannonballs from the 1800s can explode with the same lethal eects as they did more than 100 years ago. e wide variety of modern explosive ordnance can detonate with devastating eects, whether on the battleeld or in the hands of collectors. Scores of unwitting people, both military and civilian, are maimed or killed each year from handling military explosive ordnance, some of which becomes more sensitive from damage or from deterioration resulting from weather conditions or careless handling. Indeed, it is in the hands of children and collectors that most rst responders encounter unexploded military ordnance. In many cases, the individual possessing the ordnance will state authoritatively that the item is totally inert (having no explosives) and harmless. Unfortunately, most people have no familiarity with military ordnance and, for whatever reason, “think” that it is inert when it really is not. However, there is another, more sinister possibility: that the rst responder and the investigator may nd explosive-lled military ordnance in the hands of criminals and terrorists.
