[CPEO-MEF] Lethal Legacy

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Texas
DALLAS STAR-TELEGRAM
Lethal Legacy
Unexploded ordnance poses hidden danger at former military camp near
Mineral Wells
By Bill Teeter
Posted on Tue, Sep. 30, 2003

MINERAL WELLS - Allison Dailey isn't worried that unexploded munitions
might be buried in the yard of her home, built on an abandoned military
training area near Mineral Wells.

If any explosives were there, she said, she and her husband would have
uncovered them as they worked on the property -- not long before 129
live hand grenades were found in a nearby field in June 2001.

"We've dug up our yard, so I'm not real concerned," said Dailey, who
lives on a parcel that used to be part of the Army's sprawling Camp
Wolters installation.

But Dailey wishes she had known about the risk of unexploded military
ordnance in the area before deciding to move there three years ago.

"I feel that if there were going to be people in these houses, they
should have let us know that this was a possibility," she said.

There is little doubt that more explosives remain on the 20,000-acre
camp that straddles Palo Pinto and Parker counties and a nearby
3,000-acre training area known as Baker's Hollow, officials said.

And as more people move into areas that were once isolated, the chance
of construction workers, homeowners or curious children finding a
chilling surprise increases.

Concern grew four weeks ago when three live anti-tank bazooka rockets
were found in the southeast corner of the Wolters area, not far from
Lake Mineral Wells State Park, said Brian Condike, a project manager
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This fall, workers for EOD Technology Inc., a Corps of Engineers
contractor, will use metal detecting equipment to search for ordnance on
several hundred acres in the northwest section of Wolters. The Corps
plans to check the rest of the old base in 2005, Condike said.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/6896369.htm

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