VineyardGazette.com – On a clear day, Chappaquiddick’s Little Neck is all sky, and marshland and grassy dunes. Look out over the glassy expanse of Cape Pogue Bay and you’ll see shellfishermen dredging for scallops and gulls congregating along the sandy shoreline.
But underlying that peaceful scene are an unknown number of unexploded practice bombs, some of which have come to light in recent years as the dunes erode and shorelines shift.
“This area is littered with three-pound practice bombs,” said Chris Kennedy, superintendent of The Trustees of Reservations, late last week at the barrier beach.
For many years, the Trustees have closed the 62-acre property off to the public to protect them from the munitions, which were dropped there as part of target practice during World War II. Now, an effort of the Army Corps of Engineers to remove the ordnances may make it possible to open the property once again.
Since late 2008, at least 602 munitions, in whole or in part, have been found at Cape Pogue, 88 of which contained explosives. The most dangerous practice bombs contain spotting charges, which were designed to detonate upon impact.
I can’t wait until some wacko comes out of the woodwork to protest this. I’d bet anything that there is someone out there pissed off that they are going to dig around in a wetland and disturb the environment and I can not wait to hear their reasoning. We live in such an upside down world I honestly don’t know who would win in a battle between live explosive retrieval so humans don’t get blown up and disturbing a Piping Plover nest. That’s a fairly even match up these days.
What I do know is that there’s no reason for the Army Corps of Engineers to waste their time with this. All they need to do is tell Ack Ack’s father he can keep the shells to sell in his Army Surplus store and he’ll make him go out there and dig them all up for free…
Twitter: Hippie - Insane Tony
