Michael Hitt is an Army veteran, author and historian. He served in the 15th Field Artillery with the 2nd Infantry Division. After retiring from the army, Mr. Hitt attended Kennesaw College in Georgia where he received a degree in Criminal Justice. He went on to complete his basic law enforcement certification at the North Georgia Regional Police Academy. He then served two years with the Georgia Tech Police Department and 32 years with the Roswell Georgia Police Department before retiring in 2016 to devote more of his time to historical research.

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Washington, D.C. Rep. Keating, William R. [D-MA-9] introduced legislation to require DoD to develop and implement a strategy for removing UXO in Syria and Iraq. The bill, titled the "Unexploded Ordnance Removal Act", specifically requires the U.S. government to provide assessments about threats posed by improvised explosive devices, landmines, and other ordnance to US strategic and military populations as well as the countries' civilian populations.

Keating, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and ranking member on its Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade Subcommittee said, "One imminent focus of our attention needs to be unexploded ordnance there. The Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS has caused a proliferation of mines around civilian population centers, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Worse, oftentimes, these devices are hidden in everyday objects such as refrigerators or toys.....If these explosives are not cleared and continue to maim and kill civilians, including children, the lasting insecurity will provide the perfect environment for the rise of other terrorist groups."

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London, Ontario An EOD unit from the Canadian Forces was called in by police after a homeowner left a live artillery shell out with the trash. The UXO (pictured below) was found by a local resident who noticed the bomb on his way to a doctor's appointment.

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Parshall, North Dakota The Air Force is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of ammunition that reportedly accidentally fell off a vehicle on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Minot Air Force Base spokeswoman Danielle Lucero told The Bismarck Tribune that a search involving base personnel was called off over the weekend after airmen exhausted efforts to find the missing ammunition.

Loweswater, United Kingdom a man clearing out an old storage shed on his rural property called police after he found six sticks of dynamite and six detonators. Two of the dynamite sticks were in a wooden box alongside the detonators, which were in a small tin and wrapped in a newspaper dated 1901.

Police responded and cordoned off the area and before taking photos to send to a bomb disposal team based in Catterick. The bomb squad instructed personnel not to handle or move the items as they prepared to send a team to respond.

The bomb squad arrived and carefully relocated the items to a hole they dug in a nearby field away from the farmhouse. The items were safely destroyed in a disposal shot.

Hong Kong, China Authorities evacuated over 1,200 people from restaurants and offices in the Wanchai business district as a bomb disposal team worked to remove a WWII era 1,000 pound U.S. bomb from a construction site. The police reported that it was the third such discovery in the territory this year.

The bomb was exposed by the construction crew who called the police after realizing the potential danger. When the bomb disposal team arrived, the bomb was found laying vertical with two-thirds of the body buried underground.

Asked about the incident, bomb disposal officer Lai Ngo-yau was quoted in the local press - "we need to unearth at least part of the object before we start our operation.......Because the bomb is not stable, we need to do it very carefully".

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Smeale, Isle of Man A civilian metal detector enthusiast found a WWII era UXO in Smeale in the north end of the island. The find was reported to authorities and an exclusion zone was setup by the local Coast Guard until a Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Unit from the UK could respond.

EOD disposed of the item (reported as a WWII era WP round - nomenclature not provided) in a controlled demolition shot. The Isle of Man Coast Guard released a statement to remind locals that "All suspicious objects found around the Manx coast should be reported as soon as possible."

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