25 replies to this topic

[ph0ebus]

I'll let the photos do the talking, including the fellow's own responses to the questions he gets.  Thoughts?

WWI 'Excavations'

-Daniel

[Lancashire Fusilier]

ph0ebus, on 06 February 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

I'll let the photos do the talking, including the fellow's own responses to the questions he gets.  Thoughts?

WWI 'Excavations'

-Daniel

He will probably end up blowing himself to bits!
LF

[seadog]

Daniel I think our reactions will be very predictable, just one comment from me is that I wonder how “Gary” bless him gets all this home. All I can wish for him is that perhaps he will have an urge to maybe give a shell a good hard whack to separate the fuse from the explosive!,

Good luck Gary

Best wishes (if you are still with us)
Norman

[seadog]

Phew that is a relief, Gary is an expert so there should be no problem with the unexploded munitions:-

Gary says (Bold text mine)

"i have make memory statues on the battlefields and on the trenches, now for that you say about the dengerus relics, i know everything about millitary and special shell and exploding items, like grenades shells fragremments and others, as about the denger they have yees, we have lost villagers from exploting shells because the places have so so much unexploding shells on the forest, even and the roads, the war on skra grounds and mountais was big, 3 years exacly, but i have the experience, thank you for your Interest".

Norman

[ph0ebus]

seadog, on 06 February 2012 - 06:01 PM, said:

Phew that is a relief, Gary is an expert so there should be no problem with the unexploded munitions:-

Gary says (Bold text mine)

"i have make memory statues on the battlefields and on the trenches, now for that you say about the dengerus relics, i know everything about millitary and special shell and exploding items, like grenades shells fragremments and others, as about the denger they have yees, we have lost villagers from exploting shells because the places have so so much unexploding shells on the forest, even and the roads, the war on skra grounds and mountais was big, 3 years exacly, but i have the experience, thank you for your Interest".

Norman

Now we can all sleep soundly.

-Daniel

[THE SHINY SEVENTH]

I dont know what all the fuss is about, Gary sounds like a well rounded individual RIP Gary, if not now, then shortly by the looks of things. What a NUTTER!!!

[Ice tiger]

If some nutter wants to blow himself up that's his choice; I only worry about others he may put in danger.

As for his ethics in dealing with human remains I am not sure my thoughts can be published.

Andy

[munster]

Hopefully when the idiot does go bang it will happen where and when no one else gets hurt.john

[geraint]

Gary's an expert on grenades and digging - he served 'on minesweepers' according to one of his comments. Onwards and upwards ehh Gary?.

[Phil Evans]

I noticed that the thread is twelve months old. Anyone know if he's still alive?  

[seadog]

Nice one Phil!

Norman

[31543 Ogilwy]

Hi all,

I just noticed this thread and decided as my blood pressure had lessened recently that I should read it!  This man is the best example of what I have been trying to stop my entire adult life!  He is lethal!  Far worse than an idiot is an idiot who does not know he's one!

It's not the fact that the removal of this moron from the gene pool would in any way be a bad thing, it's that he's likely to take innocents with him!  Leaving him in a field with his latest find and a hammer would not be a problem.  We could attend and scoop a few shovel fulls of earth on the greasy smear that he has become if only he could be separated from other humans.

As for his qualifications, well, obviously I wasted the last 33 years learning this job and taking numerous exams .  I should have done it his way!

Rant over.  An interesting site, (for all the wrong reasons), details noted and I'm sure someone will look at it more closely.

Rod

[Steven Broomfield]

31543 Ogilwy, on 28 February 2012 - 11:22 AM, said:

  Far worse than an idiot is an idiot who does not know he's one!

Rod

Sadly, I suspect part of the JD for idiots is not knowing they're idiots.

Actually, is there a culture thing here? Gary is, apparently a Greek, who is digging up the remains of an unloved enemy, Bulgarians. Maybe his sonewhat off-hand view of Bulgarian human remains illustrates a degree of national stereotyping.

As for the explosives ... well as the only minesweeping I've ever done was after the bar closed, I'm unqualified to comment.

[conner]

I understood he'd been hired as an economic consultant with the Greek government.

[31543 Ogilwy]

Steven,

This moron has, (if you had not guessed) managed to annoy me on several levels simultaniously.  This is a particularly stupid thing to do.  His audiance has already got somewhat larger with equal amazement from others who are now followers of his.  

Being an archaeologist who works on remains, and expends the same effort and care no matter if friend or foe, his attitude to remains does not scare or frighten me it just disgusts me!  If anyone even suggested his methods, let alone actually did any of them, they would be off site with no chance of return - EVER!

I encounter people like this periodically, but in this ones case I think he is un-accessable for a guiding chat .

can't get them all!

Rod

[Steven Broomfield]

conner, on 28 February 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

I understood he'd been hired as an economic consultant with the Greek government.

BOOM followed by bust, presumably.

31543 Ogilwy, on 28 February 2012 - 03:07 PM, said:

Steven,

This moron has, (if you had not guessed) managed to annoy me on several levels simultaniously.  
Rod

I sort of guessed. To be fair, I think he's a kn&b of the first water.

[The 26TH Yankee]

seadog, on 06 February 2012 - 06:01 PM, said:

Phew that is a relief, Gary is an expert so there should be no problem with the unexploded munitions:-

Gary says (Bold text mine)

"i have make memory statues on the battlefields and on the trenches, now for that you say about the dengerus relics, i know everything about millitary and special shell and exploding items, like grenades shells fragremments and others, as about the denger they have yees, we have lost villagers from exploting shells because the places have so so much unexploding shells on the forest, even and the roads, the war on skra grounds and mountais was big, 3 years exacly, but i have the experience, thank you for your Interest".

Norman

Well, as long as he's an expert...what could go wrong?

[keithgr]

As anyone heard anything from him or about him during the last year.?

Keith.

[munster]

keithgr, on 29 February 2012 - 06:33 PM, said:

As anyone heard anything from him or about him during the last year.?

Keith.

Last seen running around a minefield with his fingers in his ears

[clarke]

munster, on 29 February 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

Last seen running around a minefield with his fingers in his ears

Hope that he has watched 'Blackadder Goes Forth' so he knows what to do if he steps on one...

[auchonvillerssomme]

I have never seen anyone do anything stupidly dangerous with any explosive items (except in NI where I saw a t*at of a sergeant prod a box we found attached to the underside of a car with a broomstick) but have sat and listened to others talking about DIY bomb disposal, anyone sat round a bar in France would have heard the same stories I'm sure. The most interesting one was that evidently if you hit a mills bomb hard and sharply enough with a sledge hammer it will shatter and won't go off, you can then add the base to your collection relatively undamaged. I was wondering how big a collection you have before the inevitable happens.

[KIRKY]

I heard of a "collector" on The Somme who cracked open grenades with a vice for the base, he kept the vice in the boot of his car! There was also a tour guide I met with a group of people and he proudly told me and them that he  hits fuze heads when in place on a dud shell with a lump hammer to add to his collection!! Kept well away from his tours!
tony

[31543 Ogilwy]

Auchonvillerssomme,

Sitting in bars and discussing work is what we 'EOD' fellows enjoy best   !  When over in France working with the De-Mineur I've heard several really terrifying storys.  No tears are shed for idiots who kill themselves, but always for the innocents caught up in others stupidity.  If they knew how they are viewed and the annoyance at the paperwork they create maybe they would think again, (or not).

One really special person I personnaly know of managed to get a large calibre shell (6" or above, (I think it was a 9.2")) to high order in his shed in the middle of a village.  The blast leveled both the out buildings and his house completely which combined with the fragmentation caused considerable damage to his neighbours properties.  This would be bad enough, but, the several thousand (and I do not exagerate) items of ammunition he had collected for years in the outbuildings were also spread throughout the village.  It took the De-Mineur's several days before his neighbours could be allowed home!  I've seen the pictures from that one and the devastation was incredibal.
I think his wake was attended by all his friends and held in the local phone box   .

Tony,

I have seen the lump hammer and Mills grenade method done (back in the 80's).  It is not an authorised nor advised Render Safe Procedure (RSP) though!  Instead of a lump of PE, I have used about a foot of detonating cord as my  my prefered method for years though.  If the grenade is live it goes bang and disappears, and if it's inert then all the pieces stay in an area about 2M accross.  It cuts down on fragmentation for the inert ones and therefore is a good thing.  That's the remote safe version of hit it with something heavy.  Hammer, Shell, hard surface - No, not for this call sign!!!  That's tantermount to suicide.  It's just another person looking to annoy me with the amount of paperwork they will cause!

Thankfully, this Forum takes this seriously and the attitude displayed by everyone I have encountered has been great.

Regards to all, I'm in Ypres area working from the 4th for a week or so, so if anyone sees someone getting irate about ammunition as souvenirs in the shops then say hello - it helps my blood pressure.

Rod

[Will O'Brien]

Having read the signposted thread, what struck me was that there were some who supported the actions of this chap on the grounds he was providing a service that the local authorities couldn't/wouldn't .

[auchonvillerssomme]

I have no idea how old this man is but he seems relatively young, I'm sure most of us took risks in our younger days that would make our teeth itch today. The problem he has is that the risk isn't immediately visible and he has no real control over the risk. I have seen, as have many others here, the results of a blast and have put body parts into bin liners. To share breakfast with a fit healthy man and 4 hours later scoop his brains into a body bag alongside what was left of his head and severed right arm after he was taken out by a drainpipe bomb does make you aware of your own mortality when in close proximity to items that are designed to kill.