Fort Leonard Wood Helps Rid The World Of Landmines

Soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood are teaching nations of the world how to get rid of one of the most deadly and damaging pieces of war – the landmine. In a slow, laborious process, Sergeant Major Marty Leach works his way across a training field, six inches at a time, looking for mines. It’s part of Fort Leonard Wood’s US Humanitarian De-Mining Training Center. Center director Paul Arcangeli says the program is run by the state department using US soldiers to teach mine detection techniques. As Leach, who happens to be from New Zealand, works slowly and methodically probing each inch of soil, he resembles the pictures from World War II movies of soldiers using their bayonets trying to detect the metal mines. And, Arcangeli says the Ozarks terrain found on Fort Wood make for ideal training because it resembles Bosnia, one of the heaviest mined areas in the world.