I was thrilled that I was asked to help the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) crew to help with the JATO disposal. This first photo shows the drilling rig with the pallet of 24 JATO rockets prepped for disposal.
We drilled holes into the ice shelf to prep for burying the rockets.
Here are two JATO rockets that are ready to be buried so that they are propelling into the ice not out of the ice.
Once they were placed into the holes that were dug, we packed them in with snow and rigged them with detonation cord.
This is the appearance of the JATO propulsion when it is explodes properly. This JATO rocket bottle puts of 1000 LBS of thrust.
A number of the JATO rockets didn't detonate the way they were supposed due to damaged propellant and the fact that it was too cold for the explosives...imagine that, too cold in Antarctica.
When they didn't explode the way they were supposed to we had to gather all the unexploded ordinance and we placed it all in hole...added some more explosive goodies to it...and BOOM!
Metal ready for recycling!
I love explosives...always have...always will...and this was way too much fun! Many vital community contacts have been made through this day, as the word has spread among the civilian population that I am “real” and “not holier-than-thou.” There are so many assumptions about chaplains until the community gets to know us—the ministry of presence wins out, every time. And I won out because I got to blow stuff up! WOO-HOO!
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