Soldiers called in to implode safety tower in New Mexico

If there's one thing the US and UK military share, it's the desire to solve their own problems rather than getting someone else in to do the job. Apparently that extends to demolition work too.

The White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico is home to the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), which recently had a large metal safety tower become unsafe. ARL's management could have chosen to contract a demolition company to implode the structure, but instead decided to use it as a training exercise and save some money in the process.

The ARL didn't just put some C4 in the hands of untrained soldiers. Instead, the 2nd Engineer Battalion, 573rd Clearance Company was called in. Having recently taken on new recruits, they were eager to get some training done before being deployed. The safety tower formed the perfect opportunity.

Imploding the tower was made more complicated by the fact it was positioned 50 feet away from another building. In its unsafe state it was actually leaning towards that building. To ensure the tower fell in the right direction it was attached by wires to two Buffalo vehicles. C4 charges were then placed at the bottom of each of the four posts supporting the structure. Two kicker charges were also installed at the top of the tower.

The tower came down without a problem and in the process the Clearance Company got some much-needed real-world training.

Source: Alamogordo Daily News