Live-fire military training nothing to take lightly

The injuries suffered by two groundskeepers at the Army’s Makua Military Reservation last Monday raise anew difficult questions about the long-term impacts of live-fire military training. One of the workers apparently made contact with unexploded ordnance while trimming grass, causing the device to detonate.

Obviously, it’s not the Army’s standard practice to allow anyone — let alone a civilian contractor — to work in an area where they could inadvertently get blown up. So how did it happen? The Army is conducting an investigation, which no doubt will be thorough, and has halted grass-cutting and soldier training in the meantime.

Nonetheless, an accident like this lends credence to the arguments of critics of live-fire military training, who contend that the Army’s procedures for cleaning up and restoring land after years of dropping shells, mortar rounds and bombs are, at best, less than optimal.