DONG HA, Vietnam - Clear Path International's new Explosive Ordnance Disposal Response Team safely detonated 33 pieces of unexploded ordnance in six different locations during its first official operations in Dong Ha.

The team, which is funded by a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation in Stowe, Vermont, and trained by Clear path's technical partner, UXB International of Ashburn, Virginia, is dispatched to communities that report life-threatening ordnance or an accidental explosion. Like a "911" emergency response unit, the team goes out to provide emergency medical care and transportation to any victims, safely dispose of deadly bombs and promote mines awareness among local residents.

The team also removes ordnance or clusters of ordnance where they stand in the way of development projects that benefit communities, such as the construction of clinics or kindergartens.

Clear Path International has been experimenting with EOD operations since the beginning of its large-scale clearance project in March. Since then, Vietnamese deminers from the land clearance operation have responded to 16 off-site ordnance reports and destroyed 85 life-threatening bombs.

With the Freeman Foundation grant, Clear Path and UXB have now institutionalized the experimental EOD team until summer. After that, Clear Path hopes to secure additional funding from partnering donors to continue its life-saving EOD operations in central Vietnam. Accidents still occur every week in this war-torn part of the country.

Meanwhile, clearance work on the historic Dong Ha Combat Base continues. Fifty-seven percent of the 110 acres has been cleared and 257 unexploded bombs have been destroyed. Once cleared, the area will be developed for much-needed housing, organic farming and aquaculture.