Project Phongsali 2011: U.S. bomb data maps are an incomplete but essential source of information.

February 20, 2011
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Week Three

Day Seventeen:

In the year 2000 the United States government provided Laos with maps that communicate most of what is known about the 580,000 bomb runs that America flew over Laos between 1964 and 1973. During those missions the US dropped over four million general purpose bombs, and 285 million cluster submunitions.

These bomb data maps are incomplete and can’t be trusted to identify all areas that were bombed, but they are a good start for identifying areas that might contain air borne ordnance. Our project makes frequent use of these maps and they have become an indispensable part of our planning.

The small section of one map, shown above, is representative of others in the atlas.

The text below, communicates details about the map symbols and, most importantly, states the maps’ limited accuracy.

US AIR FORCE BOMBING RECORDS

Red & purple dots indicate targets that were bombed at least once (and often many times).

Red circles indicate areas that were bombed with cluster bomb munitions (i.e. “Bombies” and air-dropped land mines).

The black number in the center of each 1sq km box indicates how many submunitions were dropped.

Purple dots indicate targets that received other ordnance types (General Purpose bombs, Rockets, Incendiaries etc.)

White circles with a black dot indicate a town or village settlement. The size of each circle indicates relative population size as recorded by the Lao National Census (1995).

Dense forest is darker green, scrub wood land lighter, agriculture as small brown “v” symbol, rice paddy as blue ticks, built up areas as solid tan.

DISCLAIMER

WARNING: DO NOT ASSUME AREAS WITH NO BOMBING RECORDS SHOWN ARE FREE FROM DANGER OF EITHER UXO (UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE) OR MINES.

THE BOMBING DATA IS INCOMPLETE AND MISSES EXTENSIVE MISSIONS CARRIED OUT BY THE AIRFORCES OF THE ROYAL LAO, THAI AND REPUBLIC OF SOUTH VIETNAM (AS WELL AS VARIOUS OTHER CLANDESTINE US OPERATIONS)

A NATIONWIDE ACCIDENT SURVEY OF LAO UNDERTAKEN IN 1997 BY HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL SHOWED THAT MOST COMMUNITIES IN EASTERN LAO HAD SUFFERED AT LEAST ONE UXO ACCIDENT SINCE 1975

NRA STRONGLY RECOMMENDS CONSULTATION WITH LOCAL PEOPLE, AUTHORITIES AND CLEARANCE OPERATORS. PLEASE CONSULT DIRECTLY: FSD, HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL, MAG, MILSEARCH, NPA, PCL, & UXO LAO.

PROBABLY AT LEAST 10% OF UNITED STATES BOMBING RECORDS ARE MISSING FROM THESE MAPS.

THE DATABASE INDICATES MORE THAN 100 MILLION EXPLOSIVE ITEMS WERE DROPPED ON LAO INCLUDING AIR DROPPED LANDMINES BY THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE BETWEEN 1968 & 1973. LAO IS THEREFORE STILL ONE OF THE HIGHEST UXO CONTAMINATED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD.

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