Air Force removes almost 140 bombs from golf course
HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- Nearly 140 old bombs have been excavated from a Virginia golf course built over a former bombing range.
The job was done quietly last summer at Langley Air Force Base and was just disclosed last week.
The Air Force says golfers were never in danger because no bombs were near the surface.
The property was used for bombing practice from 1917 to 1937. It became a landfill before it was converted into two 18-hole golf courses.
The bombs were uncovered when a contractor was hired to fix a drainage problem after Hurricane Isabel in 2003.
The Air Force says they were practice munitions that contained potentially dangerous charges, but weren't fully packed with explosives.
The course might reopen this summer. A neighboring course might also have bombs under it, but the Air Force figures they're buried too deep to be dangerous. That course remains open.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
