McNamara's Lethal Legacy Lives On After His Death: Wartime Bombs Kill Six in Central Vietnam

QUANG BINH, Central Vietnam - As a stark reminder of the Vietnam War's deadly legacy around the day one of its chief American architects dies, six people in central Vietnam were killed in two separate bomb explosions.

Former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, who has been criticized for escalating the war in Vietnam during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, died on July 6 at the age of 93.

On July 4 and 6, accidents involving ordnance from that war occurred in Quang Tri and Quang Binh provinces on both sides of the former demilitarized zone that once bore his name: the McNamara Line.

In Quang Tri province on July 4, Tran Long, age 35 was found dead by a small crater formed in the sandy land of Trieu Son commune. A short distance away, Nguyen Diem, age 39, had been also been injured in the explosion and died in transit to the hospital. These two men left behind wives and five children.

Just two days later, at 7:30 pm local time in Quang Binh Province on July 6, another war era bomb, weighing 500 pounds, was disturbed and detonated taking the lives of four men.The eldest was 30 years old, and the other three just 25. Three of the men were married with small children.

Tran Long's son at his father's funeral.

Tran Long's Widow

A Dangerous Job

All six men were killed while performing the same type of work - collecting scrap metal. Briefly described, scrap metal collectors use metal detectors, wandering through sandy areas once occupied by military installations or weaving through thick vegetation to reach areas which were once regular targets for massive B52 bombing raids. They look for anything made of metal - a rusty chunk of steel from a broken bomb case, a corroded brass ring from a rotating band of a projectile, or a smashed-up aluminum fin tail off a mortar round. Everything is picked up. At the end of the day, it is sorted at scrap dealer shops. Steel goes with steel, brass with brass, and cash is paid by the weight.


Scrap Metal Collected from the former Battlefields of Vietnam

Dinh Manh Hung, 26, was the only one among the six men who had a stable job as a secondary school teacher. He had been teaching chemistry for two years. However, as it was summer vacation, he wanted to earn additional income during his off time. The other five men were all farmers. They had their land to cultivate rice and other secondary crops. At home their wives raise animals. However, they still had available time after doing farm work. As the family demand for income was high, they found themselves spending more time in the woods digging up metal rather than tending their crops. In fact, their side job sometimes brought in more income than what the crops could provide.

At Tran Song Hao's home a deep search metal detector was seen. In other corners of the house there were piles of metal junk collected earlier, most of them large, thick fragments of bombs. Hao was not only a scrap metal collector; he was also a scrap metal dealer.

Time and experience taught these men skills for this job. The four men involved in the second accident knew where to search for metal junk on the Ho Chi Minh trail, the main supply line of the North Vietnamese which traversed their homeland. This network trail had been a regular target for B52 bombardments. When a heavy bomb is dropped from a high altitude, it often makes a deep penetration. When it explodes, some of the fragments make another penetration into the sides of the crater. This is especially true if the bomb uses a base fuse, causing the explosive train to travel from the tail to the nose of the bomb, pushing most of its fragments (parts of its steel case) deeper into the ground of the crater. Understanding this process, the scrap metal collectors find bomb craters, check them with deep search metal detectors, and dig up the metal fragments.

Earlier in the day, the metal detector emitted strong signals deep from the center of a crater. The men decided to wait for the sun to go down to avoid the heat. They got back to the site at 6:30 pm to start the excavation. None of them could believe that long before any of them were born, a complete bomb made its way deep inside the crater but failed to explode.
TO LIVE BY THE SWORD AND DIE BY THE SWORD

I knew Tran Long well before his fatal accident. In July 2005, CPI responded to a new accident. A young man had been injured while digging up scrap metal for his livelihood. I went to the Quang Tri general hospital to visit and interview the survivor. It was our first meeting. Long survived from that accident when the tiny piece of metal he picked up exploded. The blast took away four fingers on his left hand. We had a very open conversation, and I learned that he had just spent a fortune, several months of his savings, to purchase a deep-search metal detector.

Tran Long in treatment for losing his fingers in a previous accident.

As I said goodbye to Long after our conversation in 2005, I thought he had learned a hard lesson and that the loss of his fingers would remind him of the risks. I was positive that his wife would also persuade him to find safer work.

I was wrong. I never would have thought that four years later I would meet him again in a totally different situation. He is no longer in this world.

The fatality accident site was approximately 12 kms from their village. Both men traveled there by motorbike, taking along their work equipment. Diem took the lead with the detector, searching for signals, while Long followed him to excavate. The explosive was subsurface. When it exploded, Long received the direct hit of the blast. Duan received only one injury. A fragment entered his body in the back, exiting from his chest.


Blast area where the men lost their lives.

CONSEQUENCES
Five out of the six families have children. The oldest one is ten years old; the youngest one is still being breast-fed. All together, 8 children lost their fathers forever. I doubt if any of them are fully aware of the loss for they are all still innocent children, too small to understand.

Contrary to the innocent children are the exhausted, worried, grievous faces of the five widows and an old mother. They have all just lost a sole provider. In the long road ahead they will be struggling on their own. From now on, they must shoulder not only a mother's role but all other roles and responsibilities left by their husbands.

Article: In a rugged part of the world, help needed now and far beyond

From the Manchester Journal in Manchester, VT:

Since 2007 Clear Path has constructed 25 handicap access ramps at 13 different schools in Kabul, the capital city, and provided training about the rights of the disabled. It has established the Afghan Mine Action Technology Center, which employs disabled Afghans to produce equipment for de-mining efforts. The center also brings state-of-the-art prosthetic devices to those who need them

Read the rest of this article on Clear Path International in Afghanistan here.

Dutch Charity "Stichting Mensenkinderen" Awards $140,000 to Clear Path International

HARDERWIJK, Netherlands - The Dutch charity "Stichting Mensenkinderen" (www.mensenkinderen.nl) has given a grant for 100,000 Euro ($140,000) to Clear Path International for its humanitarian mine action work in Vietnam and Cambodia.

About two-thirds of the grant will be used to help match $127,000 in funding for Vietnam from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement, while the remainder will be used as a match for the $50,000 provided by WRA for CPI's rice mill enterprise for landmine accident survivors in Cambodia.

"Several thousand landmine victims, family members and persons with disabilities will benefit from the grants by Mensenkinderen and State," said Imbert Matthee, CPI's executive director. "It means that our much-needed work in Southeast Asia can go on in a difficult fundraising environment. We're extremely grateful for this."

Stichting Mensenkinderen (literally translated as "the Foundation for Children" or "the Foundation for Human Children") was founded in 2003 by television producer Sipke van der Land. Since it began, the organization has focused on providing food, shelter, vocational training and other services to disadvantaged, disabled and orphaned children in Albania, Moldavia and Bulgaria.

The last two years, the charity has expanded its interest to include other regions of the world. In 2007 and 2008, it gave donor-advised grants to CPI for its work along the Thai-Burma border.

In Vietnam, the Mensenkinderen funds will be used to continue Clear Path's aid to landmine accident survivors and family members in the central region (north and south of the former Demilitarized Zone) where they receive everything from emergency medical care and prostheses to home improvement and income-generating grants.

In Cambodia, the Dutch grant money will go to help expand CPI's current network of farmers' coops and to provide services to amputee farmers in the poor communities around its rice mill in Battambang province on the border with Thailand.

Like Clear Path, Stichting Mensenkinderen has a small staff and office while relying heavily on volunteers.

US State Department Funds Clear Path International Programs in Vietnam & Cambodia

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement has approved matching grants totaling $177,000 for Clear Path International's humanitarian mine action programs in Vietnam and Cambodia.

The largest grant of $127,000 will be used to fund efforts that assist survivors of accidents with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in central Vietnam. The second grant of $50,000 will be used for CPI's rice mill enterprise for landmine survivors in Battambang, Cambodia, where its beneficiaries receive training, microcredit and crop processing services.

The two grants are matched by financial contributions from the private sector, including the McKnight Foundation of Minneapolis, the Johnson & Widdifield Charitable Trust, the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark and the Dutch charity Stichting Mensenkinderen.

"At a time when it's challenging to raise money from private-sector sponsors, the government's steady and ongoing support of our work helps sustain vital survivor assistance programs," says Imbert Matthee, CPI's executive director. "It also inspires private charities to keep giving despite the economic downturn."

At least 1,000 landmine accident survivors, their family members and disadvantaged members of their communities will benefit from the two grants in the remainder of 2009 and the first part of 2010, Matthee says.

In Vietnam, aid to survivors comes in the form of emergency medical care, prosthetics, physical rehabilitation, income-generating assistance, animal husbandry programs, scholarships and sports activities.

In Cambodia, CPI and its local partner, Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development, will expand the cooperative of amputee farmers, boost micro-credit lending, offer training, mill and sell their rice.

Destination Cambodia | Clear Path International Sends Its 73rd Overseas Medical Shipment

REDMOND, Wash. - As part of its ongoing effort to strengthen local health care in mine-affected countries, Clear Path International has sent its 73rd container of relief goods collected from donors in the Seattle area.

The 40-foot container shipment destined for Phnom Penh, Cambodia, included 234 items ranging from hospital beds and wheelchairs to surgical supplies and diagnostic equipment with a total value of more than $50,000.

The items were donated by Emerald Heights, a retirement community in Redmond; Group Health Cooperative in Seattle; Care Manor, a nursing facility in Gig Harbor; and Martha & Mary's, a retirement home in Poulsbo.

Clear Path has had a program to assist landmine accident survivors in Cambodia since 2002. It is currently operating a rice mill in the heavily mine province of Battambang near the border with Thailand, where it helps hundreds of landmine victims with farm training, microcredit, rice processing and sales.

The medical shipment will be received and distributed throughout Cambodia by the Volunteer Association of Medical Professional in Phnom Penh headed by Dr. Muoy Sroy. A special thanks to the staff of Emerald Heights and CPI volunteers Brent Olsen, Howard Hanners and John Anderson.



Staff from Emerald Heights help CPI load its 73rd container of medical relief goods.



CPI volunteer Brent Olsen (wearing a white T-shirt) and staff from Emerald Heights stack hospital beds into the container for Cambodia.

Noted War Photographer Alixandra Fazzina Documents Clear Path International's Work in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - A bearded tribal elder awaiting his new prosthesis with a look of "Inshallah." A downcast girl in a red dress against a blue wall, her dark eyes pained from the struggle to use a walker. A hospitalized young man whose naked upper limbs contort like the wing bones of a wounded bird.

The images linger in your mind even hours after you've seen them. Such is the power of Alixandra Fazzina's extraordinary photography and in this case, her subjects are patients at the Kabul Orthopedic Organization. KOO gets a major portion of its funding from Clear Path International under a subcontract with DynCorp International, which in turn is supported by the U.S. State Department's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement.

Fazzina, a noted war photographer who grew up in the United Kingdom, spent an entire day documenting the work of CPI's partner adjacent to the main military hospital in Kabul. The 33-year-old, dubbed a "hot star" by the British Independent newspaper, has spent a decade visually recording conflicts around the world. Her subjects have included the infamous Lord's Resistance Army In Uganda, the Miya-Miya rebels in the Congo, and the aftermath of wars in Sierra Leone and Bosnia.

More than 6,000 KOO patients like the ones photographed by Fazzina received care through the clinic's partnership with CPI in 2007 and 2008. Persons with disabilities, especially landmine accident survivors, come from all over Afghanistan to be treated there. Stay tuned for more of Alixandra's photos, as she recently visited Jalalabad Afghanistan where CPI sponsors Afghanistan's only cricket club, made up of persons with disabilities.



Injured in a landmine explosion, an old man receives heat treatment on his leg during a physiotherapy session at the Kabul Orthepedic Organisation (KOO).





A female patient uses an exercise bicycle to help her gain use of her legs during physiotherapy at the Kabul Orthepedic Centre.




Waiting in a corridor between consultations, a young land mine victim looks at a new prosthetic leg propped up on a bench.





With the aid of a frame, a young girl learns to walk on prosthetic limbs at the Kabul Orthepedic Organisation's clinic for children.



Head of the Kabul Orthepedic Organisation's workshops Muhammad Ghous helps amputee Sher Muhammad walk on a new prosthetic leg for the first time. Having lost his leg in a landmine explosion when he was fighting with the Mujahadeen in Kunduz, Sher is receiving his first "lighter and stronger"; prostheses.



Surrounded by other war wounded, an Afghan National Army soldier is assessed by a doctor having has his shattered leg bone screwed together.



Recently married with a new born baby, twenty-six year old soldier Muhammad Naeem spends his third month as a bed-ridden quadriplegic after sustaining a head injury in a landmine blast.

Thanks for Everything, Lobke: Dutch Clear Path International Representative in Thailand Moves to Spain

After nearly four years as a volunteer Country Representative for Clear Path International on the Thai-Burma border, Dutch physical therapist Lobke Dijkstra has moved to Spain to start an organization providing recreational opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Dijkstra, who spent at least several months a year in Thailand on leave from her regular job as a PT in the Netherlands, leaves behind a legacy of services now available to landmine accident survivors up and down the long western border of Thailand.

For the 2009 - 2010 cycle, CPI is expecting to assist at least 477 survivors with everything from prosthetics care, full-time nursing care (for blind amputees) and income-generating projects for refugee amputees. The program, now under the direction of CPI's new SE Asia director, melody Mociulski, serves beneficiaries from the Karen, Karenni and Shan ethnic states in Burma in seven different locations.

In a note copied to all CPI staff and directors, Board President Nancy Norton sent a "Certificate of Appreciation" to Dijkstra and said "Our organization and the people we help have been immeasurably blessed by your extraordinary volunteer efforts during the past several years. Your compassion, dedication and perseverance have allowed us to assist hundreds of landmine accident survivors from Burma whose needs would have gone unfulfilled. By your selflessness, your devotion and your boundless energy we are all deeply humbled."

In response to the note, Dijkstra said she learned a lot from her time on the Thai-Burma border and that her work was a chance to fulfill her childhood dream of working in development overseas.

"I want to thank CPI for its trust in me and I'm grateful to all who put their energy into this much-needed work year in, year out," she said.

Read Lobke's blog posting about working on the Thai Burma Border, "My Own Two Hands", here.