Chesapeake, Virginia Contractors demolishing part of the old Gilmerton Bridge found something rather irregular encased in the concrete they were taking apart, military munitions. The workers called the police who responded and shut traffic down for over three hours while the incident was investigated. The Coast Guard also halted ship and vessel traffic on the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River from Money Point to the High-Rise Bridge.

The police called the Navy who responded to provide technical support. Navy EOD identified the three munitions as inert artillery shells. The shells were removed without incident.

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Pocahontas, Arkansas An Air Force unit bomb squad was called to a home in Randolph County when the owner found WWII UXO in his yard. The man was clearing his yard when he encountered the suspicious device, later determined to be an M6 Anti-Tank round. The technicians conducted an on-site disposal shot using C-4 explosives.

Authorities are unsure how the rocket ended up in the yard. There are no military bases in the area. It appeared to have been there for a long time.

Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Japan Perhaps not two things that would seem to go together, but Marines of 3rd EOD Company used the strange combination of wine bottles and high explosives to simulate shaped charges in recent training exercise. The training allowed students to construct shaped charges made out of some of the same materials insurgents use. Students also got a change to see how these improvised shaped charges performed against steel and armor plated targets.

Three members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force also participated in the training as part of the Japan Observer Exchange Program.

Jacksonville, Florida Navy EOD technicians from EOD Mobile Unit 6 based at Naval Station Mayport took a break from training to perform a sea rescue when three men and a small dog capsized a 17-foot fishing boat on the St. Johns River.

The three men rescued, all senior citizens (ages 67, 74, and 65), had been in the water for 30 minutes clinging onto the capsized vessel with the dog somehow managing to stay perched on top. The group was discovered when EOD noticed some unusual movement in the water out in the distance and decided to investigate.

The EOD technicians brought the three men and the dog on-board their vessel and towed the capsized boat to shore. Following the rescue, EMTs determined the men were injury free. The dog is also reportedly doing well.

Question Submitted by Paul C. McCarren, UXOInfo.com reader.

Ohio Two weeks ago, a 6 year old boy found an ordnance item (shown below) in a creek bed while hiking with his family. The family was hiking in a wildlife area over 30 miles away from a military area or known FUDS.

The family reported the find to local authorities who BIP'd the item. The identification of the item was not released but was reported as 'inert'.

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Question Submitted by Lee Johnson, UXOInfo.com reader.

While researching the site of a Lockheed Lodestar crash, we located this unusually shaped object. Although this was a WWII aircraft crash site, the object appears to predate that era due to the rough cast iron 'casing'. We originally thought it was part of the aircraft until cleaning revealed what appears to be a brass 'fuse' plug on the 'front' end.

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Spin Boldak District, Afghanistan In an effort prepare the Afghanistan Border police to handle IEDs, the U.S. military has been actively training Afghans on EOD procedures to include procedures to detect and dispose of IEDs. Air Force EOD Team 6, 466B Flight, Task Force Paladin recently completed a joint training validation event with U.S. Air Force EOD technicians. Being validated will allow the Afghan Border Police, or ABP, to receive more equipment to train more technicians, and respond safely to IEDs.

Afghan Border Police 1st Lt. Azim Noori, the 3rd Zone, Quick Reaction Force Kandak lead technician, has attended three counter-IED and explosives schools and is currently the 3rd Zone primary counter-IED instructor for the Explosive Hazard Reduction Course, or EHRC, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The training is important in light of an impending departure of ISAF forces. Thanks to the training exercises, the ABP will have qualified EOD technicians ready to take over operations.

Image and article from www.army.mil

The Tactical Explosive Detector Dog (TEDD) Program was created by the US Army and uses specially trained dogs to search for explosive devices. Approximately 100 such dogs are deployed to Afghanistan at any time. The dogs are trained to conduct "road clear" operations where they search for IEDs just ahead of where the army unit is traveling.

UXOInfo.com sponsor, TripWire, handles dogs trained for the program and they will be featured in National Geographic's "Alpha Dogs," Friday, Feb. 15 at 9:30 PM. Don't miss it!.

For more information, visit: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com

Dorset, United Kingdom A woman escaped harm when she dug up an old rocket while gardening. Mistaking it for a rusty exhaust pipe, she tossed it aside as rubbish. It was only when her two sons (ages 22 and 18) returned home and said the object looked like a piece of ordnance that she realized the potential danger.

A Royal Navy bomb disposal team was called to safely remove the munition pictured below from the yard. The residential property were the munition was found was close to where a Royal Navy cordite factory was that was often a target during WWII.

White Lake, Michigan Ms. June Etlinger, the mother of an Army EOD Staff Sgt, is fighting the Great Lakes National Cemetery to allow her son's recently deceased assistant (Sgt Mina) who served nine deployments including three deployments to Afghanistan to be buried in a military cemetery.

The issue is that the EOD assistant Ms Etlinger is fighting for is a black labrador retriever. Sgt Mina served three tours of duty in Afghanistan with her son's EOD unit before the Army retired the dog in 2011 with an honorable discharge. Etlinger's 26-year old Staff Sgt EOD Technician son adopted Mina and took care of him for two years until the dog passed away this week from a lung ailment.

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