I was perusing through youtube and I stumbled across a video that shows the millions of un-exploded bombs in Laos and the people who risk their lives ridding the country of them. In the secret war over Laos, the U.S. dropped millions of tons of bombs on Laos in an attempt to stop communists from getting into South Viet Nam. Not only large bombs were dropped , But untold millions of cluster bombs were dropped. Those cluster bombs, which look like knobby baseballs are especially deadly for children who mistake them for balls and then are tossed around. Every few weeks, innocent Laotians are killed and/or maimed by those UXB's. Some are killed as they plow their rice fields, some, usually children are killed when they find bombs and try to dig them up to sell as scrap metal. There is a thriving market in Laos for scrap metal and the children can earn as much as $15 USD for a medium sized UXB, which is enough to feed a family for a month. In the video, an Australian ex-serviceman, is a leader of a group that disposes of those bombs and also teaches local Laotians how to deal with the very complicated , and dangerous bombs. After their training they become certified bomb disposal experts. Such a shame that the innocent, simple village people of Laos have to deal with this. They seem to be such a gentle folk.
It seems that this is a subject that surfaces every once in a while, and then it goes away. If I recall correctly, this was a pet issue of Lady Di's.
It was a strong hole for the enemy which used it to store food and ammo. As was Cambodia and we did go into Cambodia but did not find many enemy as we thought we would. A truck was hit carrying a steel box in the back and it was loaded with North Vietnam greenbacks for payroll. I think everyone in my part of the Delta took some of that money home. I know I did but over the decades lost it. I remember it was water stained. I was very close to Cambodia and we have been there at 2am in the morning trying to extract dead personnel for a unit that had been in contact all day. The only way we could find them was using a blue strobe light someone had on the ground. We landed and unloaded ammo and food and took on the dead. Those poor guys had to spend the entire night out there in the water standing. I remember our pilots talking about how Cambodia was not involved in the war and was off limits so if you were taken captive they would treat you well but you still had to wait for return bartered over who knows what.
We do not have to travel too far to find un-exploded bombs. I think there’s still an atomic bomb in the Atlantic just off the coast of the Carolina’s. That said, here’s a very interesting story about 2 unexplored nuclear bombs in N.Carolina. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.u...night-two-atomic-bombs-fell-on-north-carolina