Chuck Searcy, 79, co-founder of a group that works to deactivate unexploded bombs in Vietnam, a legacy of the war. He stood next to deactivated ordnance in Dong Ha City, Quang Tri Province, last month.
NY Times, March 15, 2024: “On a visit to the former battlefield of Khe Sanh, scene of one of the bloodiest standoffs of the Vietnam War, the only people Chuck Searcy encountered on the broad, barren field were two young boys who led him to an unexploded rocket lying by a ditch. One of the youngsters reached out to give the bomb a kick until Mr. Searcy cried out, ‘No, Stop!’ … It was not Mr. Searcy’s first encounter with Vietnam. He served there as a soldier in 1968, the same year as the battle of Khe Sanh, and came away disillusioned. As a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, he had had access to a full range of raw information, from the enemy’s body counts to exaggerated claims of American progress. … That sense of duty has propelled him to commit his life to redressing one of the most deadly legacies of the war: the millions of unexploded bombs and land mines that continue to kill and injure people every year. Now 79 and living in Hanoi, Mr. Searcy is perhaps the most widely known American veteran among Vietnamese, often giving local interviews and making statements that stress his antiwar views, and helping bend American policies toward engagement with Vietnam. … Together, the two men founded Project Renew, based in Quang Tri, which since 2001 has been deploying teams of de-miners, teaching schoolchildren how to stay safe, and providing prosthetics and job training to victims. Mr. Searcy said he was often asked what motivates his commitment to the welfare of postwar Vietnam. It is not guilt, he said. Rather, it’s a sense of responsibility to try to remedy the damage his country has caused. The phrase he particularly embraces is a Marine Corps directive that involves clearing away spent metal shell casings on a firing range: Policing up your brass. Mr. Searcy is, both figuratively and literally, policing up the deadly ordnance that the Americans left behind throughout Vietnam. Quang Tri Province, the site of Khe Sanh and on the border with the Ho Chi Minh Trail, is just below the line that divided South and North Vietnam. It was the most heavily bombed region in Vietnam, Mr. Searcy said. … Altogether, Mr. Searcy said, almost eight million tons of ordnance was dropped on Vietnam from 1965 to 1975. Bombs that failed to detonate became de facto land mines, which the Vietnamese government estimates have caused 100,000 deaths and injuries since the war’s end. Since Project Renew began its work, in partnership with Norwegian People’s Aid — an organization that operates land mine-clearing operations in more than a dozen countries — the toll in Quang Tri has declined from over 70 incidents a year to zero in 2019. Together with the Norwegians, Project Renew employs 180 deminers. …”
NY Times
W – List of bombs in the Vietnam War
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