U.S. Equipment for Vietnam

Labels bearing this logo were attached to the 181 mine detectors, twenty bomb locators, fifteen sets of personal protective equipment, three explosive ordnance disposal suits, and eighteen medical trauma kits, which made up the bulk of the nearly $1 million worth of equipment supplied by the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs to the Vietnamese Army Engineering Command's Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN) with Fiscal Year 2006 funds. This marks the eighth year in a row that the Bureau has equipped BOMICEN with equipment. This newest lot of equipment was procured and shipped by MAG (Mines Advisory Group), under a grant from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. The total value of the equipment donations now exceeds $10 million dollars and constitutes only part of the United States commitment to help Vietnam render itself free from the humanitarian impact of the landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) that remain a threat after 30 years of conflict there. The entwined versions of the flags of the United States and Vietnam on the logo symbolize the friendship between the two countries. Additional information about this particular donation of equipment is available via two press releases from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi: http://hanoi.usembassy.gov/pr010307i.html and http://hanoi.usembassy.gov/pr122706.html. Both releases are also available in Vietnamese at http://vietnamese.vietnam.usembassy.gov/pr030107.html and http://vietnamese.vietnam.usembassy.gov/pr271206.html, respectively. [Photo courtesy of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State.]

Colonel Nguyen Trong Canh, Director of the Vietnamese Army Engineering Command's Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN), points out to Richard Kidd, Director of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, and Major Robert Lucius, Marine Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, two unexploded artillery shells that have been carefully and temporarily placed at the edge of a rice paddy by BOMICEN divers who brought them up from an underwater clearance site on the Phu Lai river in Bac Ninh Province north of Hanoi, where another bridge is planned a few meters beyond the current bridge in this photo. These shells (which were to be destroyed in a remote location later), still potentially dangerous after decades on the river bottom, and other suspected UXO that could endanger the bridge builders, are being located and cleared with detectors, inflatable boats, and, in part, modern SCUBA equipment that was supplied by the U.S. Department of State in previous years. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State.] 

 

A BOMICEN soldier in one of the inflatable rubber dinghies donated by the U.S. Department of State directs a tugboat and barges away from the underwater UXO clearance site on the Phu Lai river. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State.] 

A BOMICEN soldier helps to demarcate the underwater UXO clearance site on the Phu Lai River while one of his comrades and a BOMICEN support diver stand by. These inflatable dinghies as well as the SCUBA gear were donated by the U.S. Department of State earlier. A brick works is visible on the shore. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State.] 

 
While the Vietnamese Army's BOMICEN arm has benefited greatly from the more than $10 million in modern demining and UXO clearance gear donated by the U.S. Department of State since 1999, it also continues to rely heavily on its own older equipment to get the job done throughout the country. Here, BOMICEN soldiers ensure that a BOMICEN "hard hat" diver's helmet is completely sealed before he enters the water at the underwater UXO clearance site on the Phu Lai River. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State.] 

The BOMICEN "hard hat" diver prepares to descend into the murky depths of the Phu Lai river where he will carefully probe the muddy bottom in areas where bomb locaters supplied by the U.S. Department of State have identified unknown metal objects that must be brought up to the surface to determine if they could be UXO that could hinder the construction of a second bridge across this particular stretch of the river. This diver was able to communicate with the surface via the yellow telephone line attached to his air hose. Two BOMICEN divers equipped with modern U.S.-supplied SCUBA gear were ready to dive to his rescue in an instant if need be. Still, one can imagine the challenges this brave diver confronted as he worked on the bottom hampered by zero visibility, deep mud, and currents, while relying solely by the touch of his hands and signals from the surface as his comrades tracked his movement from his air bubbles. [Photo courtesy of John Stevens, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State.]