THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 13, 1994 TAG: 9407130403
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Is Fort Monroe digging its own grave?
The base commander, Col. William B. Clark, announced plans Tuesday to spend $1.35 million locating all the unexploded Civil War cannonballs and World War II bombs buried beneath the historic 568-acre fort.
But the mystery surrounding the bombs' location, and the high cost of removing them, was suspected as one reason Fort Monroe was spared the base-closing ax last year.
So, would finding them jeopardize the fort's future?
``I don't think so,'' Clark said. The search of the grounds was recommended by the Defense Base Closing and Realignment Commission in 1993, but buried bombs was not an official reason for the decision to keep the base open.
Military value is supposed to drive commission decisions, not environmental factors like what's underground.
Still, said Clark, ``My gut tells me that behind closed doors, if that (cost) is a significant number, then it does.''
Regardless, Clark says, the fort may have a new lease on life with its emerging role as a place where all the military services come to plan and ``fight'' wars using computer models. He's trying to interest the Department of Defense in the fort's Joint Warfare Fighting Center.
As they ponder its future, officials at Fort Monroe are working to clean up its past. The installation, which traces its origins to Virginia's first settlers in 1607, became the Army's first artillery practice school in 1824.
It grew to the largest arsenal in the country during the Civil War. Through the beginning of World War II, soldiers lobbed all sorts of bombs along two areas inside the fort, mainly testing newly developed armor-piercing shells.
The base-closure commission's recommendation to look for the bombs suited Clark. Every time he wants to bury a cable, or construct a building, he has to pay $30,000 to $40,000 to survey for unexploded ordnance. Now he'll have a single comprehensive study to rely on.
The Army wouldn't be required to act on that study and remove the bombs unless Fort Monroe is closed, in which case the property would revert to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Private contractors helping conduct the study are using computer-assisted equipment to probe all open areas at Fort Monroe. They won't be looking beneath existing buildings or roads, on the theory those areas won't be disrupted so no danger exists.
For the first time, they will be able to plot the location of all major underground metals, filtering out small items such as bottle caps and nails. They will be identifying larger items such as 8-inch cannon shot, 50-pound bombs and anything that has the potential for being lethal.
Past studies gave approximate locations. This one probes 20 feet down and has an accuracy rate of one foot.
The contract calls for the tests to continue through late October. A final report, due Dec. 19, will show what areas would need to be cleaned up for development and what the property might be used for if the Army loses it. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL KELLEY III/Staff
Keith Shucker and Tom Ligon sweep to check changes in the Earth's
magnetic field at Fort Monroe.
by CNB