We came here to hunt for Bombs, and have ended up hunting for archaeological clues to the proud history of Vientiane.

 When Archaeologist from the Lao National Museum heard that Aqua Survey President Ken Hayes and I were here with sophisticated new technology that could find metal items hidden deep under ground, they asked us to do a quick survey of an area on the edge of the Mekong slatted for construction, like in 20 days. Ken quickly agreed to help out, and the early results  appear to be very exciting.

Here is an article in the Travel Daily News Asia: Laos Hotel School Unearths City Walls

After spending some time in remote southern Laos, in an area strewn with hazardous UXO, I have returned to the capitol with a new view of Laos, its people , and the future, both theirs and mine.

When Aqua Survey President  Ken Hayes asked me to join him on this trip working with new equipment to detect and map UXO deep in the ground, I was thinking of goals in terms of meters, hertz, and mili-volts.

But after having met survivors of exploding leftovers from a war long ago, and hearing about those who didn't survive, it was our concern for the future that provided new  goals;  to create the technology to find bombs before these kids do.

We have finished our work in the field for now, and will return home with a couple of reminders to work hard and try to help find a solution to the problem of UXO that I'm going to put in a frame; This photo of 2 friends outside the village of Vilabouly, and a receipt for a prosthetic leg from the COPE program that, unfortunately, some one is going to need.

Travel outside of Vientiane is hampered by the rainy season. There are very few paved roads in Laos, and even traveling around the capital is a bumpy, muddy slow speed event.

Lao drivers are patient, which is good.

So the prospect of covering any distance by road can be a major undertaking.  We flew by Cessna Caravan out to the field site, a flight that's impossible as often as not, so the overland route is the mainstay, and takes about 5 hrs. to Savanaket, where the daily flight to Vientiane is more reliable.

From the dirt airstrip we rode by Land Rover down to Route 28A, also known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which maintains the title of the most heavily bombed road in the most heavily bombed country on earth.

One of the first sites that we visit is an eye opener.  A section of free-form rice paddies in a high valley between two ridges overgrown with jungle. It hasn't rained since the morning and the sun is steaming the moisture out of the land and the forest.  It's hot.

The Lao UXO clearance team is spread out over the field from their makeshift awning to where the creek flows off the edge of the paddy into the forest. A bamboo picnic table is set up under the awning next to the impact crater of a large bomb. We park there and meet the UXO team leader.

In the surrounding field are over a thousand shovel sized holes spreading up to the forest's edge one or two every couple of feet, indicating where the team had detected and removed bomb frag. The farmer had been tilling through frag for years.

That frag spread, a couple acres in size, was the kill zone of that one, perhaps 500 lb., bomb.

In the field amongst the small frag excavation holes were 4 larger holes marked with bamboo poles and red flags. These were larger, deeper targets, over 2 meters deep. They hadn't been investigated or dug down to yet, because they shared the characteristics of other 500 pound bombs that had failed to explode on impact. They might be armed, or ready to arm themselves, or on a timer with a little bit of dirt keeping it from starting; one never knows.

And that's what we came here to find.

Our Lao hosts took us to visit the Disabled Women's Development Center
in Vientiane.

Before traveling to Laos to help with the effort to remove the millions
of unexploded bombs that exist for every inhabitant of this
impoverished country, I had prepared myself to hear stories about
farmers accidentally
detonating  bombs left behind from the war by impact with their
farming tools, or water buffalo, or vehicles, and did. The one about
the guy building a fire right where he always did, but this one time
it set of a "bombie" ( the diminutive nick-name for the grenade sized
cluster-bombs) of and blinded him, didn't catch me by
 surprise. And of course I already knew about the many stories of kids
finding cluster bombs and playing with them, often ending with tragic results.

What I did not expect was that villagers would actually go looking for
bombs, in hopes of making some money.

This is a very poor country, and the proof is that a bomb can be a
source of things a rural farmer just doesn't have, like fins and
various parts of a large bomb can provide metal for a bucket, or a
hatchet, or a strap, or a machete. The explosives contained in smaller
bombs can be used for dynamite-fishing. The steel from a large bomb
can be sold for scrap metal at 2000 Lao Kip a kilo, ( about  25 cents U.S.)
and provide an income to a  subsistence
farming family that makes no income at all. Although officially
illegal, this trade continues to be extensive.

A cheap Vietnamese made metal detector can be bought for the equivalent
of $13. Some Lao families buy them, and go looking for bombs. I had
not anticipated knowing that. Not surprisingly, it often ends with
tragic results.

Before flying out to our Jungle site to hunt for bombs remaining from the Vietnam war, Ken and I visited the Lao Disabled Womens Development Center in Vientiane, and met a few women injured by bombs dropped during the hostilities, long after, and also those that suffered from the toxic effects of the contents of the bombs leaching into the ground and water.

Thanks to this program, the woman above is able to earn money weaving traditional Lao silk cloth, despite her paralysis from childhood exposure to munitions constituents.

Her story, and that of her co-worker, who was badly injured and lost her family as a 6 year old during one of multiple bombings of her village in 1971, gave Ken and I plenty to think about as we fly to the jungle camp tomorrow.

Recently a volunteer helped them set up a Facebook page to help getting grants, and the director asked if I would "Like " it. They only had 76 likes! If you want to do a good deed for a worthy cause, give them a click here

Before going into the field near Xipon to use our bomb detecting equipment, we visited the place  in Vientiane where prosthetic limbs are made and fitted for Laotian people crippled by bombs they encountered some 40 years after they were dropped.

It's  sad to say it, but the place has plenty of customers.

I wont show you pictures of the people we met there, but will try to share some of the good that is being done to help them recover and function physically after their injuries have healed.

My  best souvenir from Laos so far? A receipt for a prosthetic leg; $75.  Don't be jealous, you can get one too online at' 
http://www.copelaos.org/ 

Do you remember hearing that Hillary Clinton visited Laos last month?

 The US Secretary of State announced a renewed US effort to rid that
country of the devastating remnants of the Vietnam War that plague
them on a daily basis, namely the un-exploded bombs that continue to
kill and maim people on an almost daily basis, while they try to farm
their way out of poverty. 

Last Night Ken Hayes and I depart for Laos as part of that effort, armed
with new technology Aqua Survey has developed.  We hope will help
speed the process of locating and disarming the munitions that are
hidden under farms, villages and roads. I'm writing this during our lay over in Munich.

 Here are a few notes on the underlying problem;

1) Although War was never officially declared on Laos during the
Vietnam conflict,  2 million tons of bombs were dropped, a ton for
every Laotian man woman and child, over a 9 year period.That's more
than the amount dropped during WWII on Germany and Japan combined.
Included were 500 pounders as well as cluster bombs that would open up
and distribute grenade-sized bomb-lets across acres of land..

2) The numbers of injury's and deaths from exploding munitions, which
are hidden under the earth in almost any plot of land a Laotian might
want to farm, build, or travel on, are down from an almost daily basis
a few years ago to several a week. That means that several times a
week a child has her hands blown off, or the breadwinner of a family
is killed. Every week, since 1973.

3) Today the day to day detection and removal process is largely done
by Lao women and men, trained in UXO procedures and armed with
modern metal detectors. Ken and I will be sharing Aqua Surveys new
insight into remote detection with the Laotian  UXO Techs to help find
more the munitions that are out of reach for the standard detection
technology.

4) We will also be visiting the C.O.P.E Center with some school
supplies for the children being treated there and fitted with
prosthetic limbs. And I feel selfish for dreading this opportunity.

The opportunity to cross the country was too much to pass up. In route to a job for Aqua Survey Inc., I loaded up "Pepita" with nearly a ton of scientific equipment, including an underwater Robot, and headed across Highway 50, through the Wild West. 

Some more photos are posted below the break.

The recent discovery of a potentially explosive cannonball from the Civil War on Governors Island prompted a visit and investigation to see if there was something for future visitors to worry about.

Here's a news article about the discovery.

Exploration Concluded; No Worries, All Clear!