Just a few miles down the road from our neighborhood was once the site of practice range for the old Army air base in Orlando.  Training aircraft would drop bombs and all kinds of ordinance across this swampy area.  Back in the 40’s this wasn’t a big problem – the area’s only inhabitants were aligators and a few cattle.

Flash forward 60+ years and the bombing range is now covered with neighborhoods, a shopping plaza and a middle school!

Apparently the boundary areas for the range were never clearly marked on a map.  Or if they were, that map has become long lost to the Air Force and the city of Orlando.

Back in the spring some kids playing in the woods behind the local middle school literally stumbled across a half buried bomb.  The Army Corp of Engineers was contacted and the bomb was soon detonated safely on site.  At first it appeared that this was very much a stray bomb, but more searches have uncovered quite a bit of ordinance.  Mind you the bombs haven’t exploded in over 60 years, but most do in fact have live detonators attached to them.

The middle school was even closed and sectioned off for a brief time during the summer.  See CNN’s story on the bombs

Needless to say, public reaction to having bombs in their back yard hasn’t been too cheerie.  The media has had a hay day with this one.