[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E56-E57]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              BOSNIA AND ``THE HORROR OF THE LAND MINES''

                                 ______


                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 23, 1996

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to include for the Record the 
following article by a marine veteran from the Vietnam war, Tom Evans, 
on the horror of land mines. After visiting our troops in Germany over 
the New Year's holiday as they prepared for deployment into Bosnia, I 
can personally attest to the concern they and their families have over 
this hidden but very dangerous weapon on the Balkan battlefield. The 
Research and Development Subcommittee of the House National Security 
Committee will hold hearings on this issue this week, January 24, 1996. 
I urge everyone to heed the warning of Tom Evans and join us on the 
National Security Committee as we try to develop a response to the 
growing threat of land mines.

                      The Horror of the Land Mines

                             (By Tom Evans)

       American troops in Bosnia will face land mines. The folks 
     at home who are sending the troops ought to be sure they 
     understand what that means, Unfortunately, we as a nation 
     have had all too much experience.
       Thirty years ago the Viet Cong frequently buried mines in 
     populated areas where American troops walked. Troops were 
     often funneled into columns by narrow rice paddy dikes and 
     trails.
       The most commonly used enemy mine in my battalion's area of 
     operations was called the ``Bouncing Betty.'' It bounced 
     waist-high before exploding. To teen-age American Marines and 
     soldiers it was the most demoralizing type of mine. And it 
     was American-made. We had supplied them to our allies, the 
     South Vietnamese army, but the Viet Cong captured them. 
     American Marines were forever bitter toward their allies for 
     that.
       In the area we called the ``Street Without Joy,'' a few 
     miles northwest of the imperial capital city of Hue, mine 
     detectors we rarely used on operations until somebody stepped 
     on a mine. We assumed it was because the patrol just moved 
     too slowly behind an engineer sweeping the long-handled dish 
     along the ground. In fact, there was a joke in the Marine 
     infantry. Question: What's the best mine detector the Marine 
     Corps has? Answer: The Model PFC, one each.
       The first American I saw killed stepped on a ``Bouncing 
     Betty'' mine. He was Bernard Fall, a civilian author and one 
     of the foremost Western authorities on Vietnam at that time. 
     Almost 20 years later I found a photo in the National 
     Archives of Fall taken moments after he died in February 
     1967. The picture, taken by a combat photographer, would 
     never have been taken of a serviceman, but Fall was a 
     civilian. The picture was so terribly graphic that it was 
     marked ``Not To Be Released For Publication.'' Since it was 
     declassified by the time I saw it, I planned to order a copy 
     and someday show my then-1-year-old son what war really 
     looked like. But I never did.
       Unfortunately, I witnessed other mine incidents also. Some 
     of the victims lived, at least for a while. There were three 
     sounds we came to dread: the ``ca-rumph?'' sound of the mine 
     explosion; the call ``Corpsman [or medic] up!''; and if the 
     young, shocked Marine was still alive, sometimes ``Mother!'' 
     or ``Mama!''
       Recently I attended my Vietnam battalion's reunion. Some of 
     us discussed the terror of walking down a path that might be 

[[Page E57]]
     mined. Usually the earth is an infantryman's friend. He digs a fighting 
     hole--the deeper he digs, the safer he is. But with mines, 
     the earth is the enemy.
       A machine gunner in our unit stepped up onto a rice paddy 
     dike on a bounding-type mine and froze when he heard the 
     click. An engineer disarmed the mine underneath his foot, and 
     Reader's Digest wrote up his story. But his story of survival 
     was one in a million.
       Also, there is no enemy to fire back at when a mine 
     explodes. The nearest villagers might suffer the 
     infantrymen's wrath.
       When we send troops into Bosnia and say they will be 
     exposed to land mines, we should know what they are getting 
     into.

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