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Demolitions

In essence more than 2,000 total demolitions happened

in a short space of time during the Gulf War. The end

goal was making sure Iraq could not get back to the

weapons and equipment, and to keep American troops

from harm. Thus the Denial operations took place, and

quite a few EOD specialist were called in to work a

large variety of issues.

However, many didn't recognize what they were inventorying

in bunker complexes, and others knew that a combination

of ammunition lay scattered throughout and said little. There

were chemical mines, chemical/biological RPG's, a mixture of

SCUD and FROG war heads, and assorted artillery including

mustard shells. There would be cases or crates with plastic

covered shells, sweating and dripping inside the plastic- this

was also odd because most rounds either came in laying

in straw ( not wrapped in drape plastic ) or laying in wooden

cradles inside the boxes. Many would have a large screw

plug in front, with instruction on side saying "pour here".

The goal was to blow most things in place, and go on.

One thing that would seem odd was the use of accelerants

to blow these materials. An accelerant is used to burn a

organic / chemical object, and most accelerants were little

more than gasoline or thinner. It is fairly useless on metal

objects because of its poor concussive qualities, and anything

thicker 30 gauge metal it simply didn't effect except maybe

heat warp if it got hot enough.

You need High Explosives to crack metal casings, or fracture

thick metal objects. HE explosives are not very exciting either,

they dont generally produce the fireballs you see in Hollywood

movies. There is a shockwave, and a gray white smoke. Very

little if any flame at all.

Many Gulf War demolitions would be fireballs, with 

smoldering fires that would end up producing secondary 

explosions that caught many engineers off guard. Then 

would come the colored smoke plumes from these fires 

that made people sick.

Khamasiyah would end up being the most famous demolition,

bunker 73 was a huge stockpile. But, DOD would work hard

to try, and disqualify all testimonies and down play the event.

Then Dr. Bernard Rostker would later state that there were

NO chemical ammunition south of Khamasiayh. This would

mean that all the ammunition seen by these troops now didnt

exist anymore. Finally, they would even try to say that Chemical

ammunition at Khamasiyah was UNLIKELY.

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These are stills taken from Gulf War footage of MICLIC
charges clearing areas. MICLIC was for clearing mine
feilds, and was a tethered round shot from a vehicle. The
point of interest here is the amount of flame in these
demolitions, which isnt necessary for metal objects. In
fact, if not hot enough it simply activates some types of
chemical ammunition - called bianaries.


   

   

   
 
In this demolition, notice the color of the smoke
cloud boiling up - including orange and blue/black
smoke.
                                                                           







This one was litterally included in the 1st AD
memorial handout book. Which would come
back to haunt them later.