[CPEO-MEF] Students will learn delicate art of exploding old arsenals

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Students will learn delicate art of exploding old arsenals
Knoxville News Sentinel
By BOB FOWLER, fowlerb@knews.com
August 30, 2005

OAK RIDGE - Fake detonation cord strung between two mock anti-tank 
shells was cut Monday afternoon to launch the nation's first private 
school to train people to dispose of unexploded bombs and mines. The 
unorthodox ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the Center for Unexploded 
Ordnance Training. It's a new division of American Technologies Inc. and 
is in a nondescript building off Fairbanks Road. "There's a whole 
industry built around unexploded ordnance,'' ATI executive Steven C. 
Moores said.

The school, certified by the state Board of Higher Education, starts its 
first seven-week course today. Two retired military men are teaching the 
course, which costs $7,000. Each class will train up to 24 students. 
Graduates will become certified as technicians in the specialized field, 
and they will be much in demand, officials said. Starting pay is $21 an 
hour, Moores said.

In the United States alone, there are 10 million acres that are now 
unusable because of unexploded ordnance, said school instructor Myles 
West, a retired U.S. Army veteran. Much of the land is on old military 
bases where troops trained for combat, he said. "The big push is to 
clean up that land,'' said West, who said students at the new school 
will work 10-hour days.

For full story, see 
http://www3.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4039787,00.html

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