Will Moody AFB find the dummy bombs an A-10C Warthog dropped near Suwannee Springs the other day?

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t

Moody AFB said sometimes they search for them, and sometimes they don’t, depending on an ongoing safety examination.

Location Map

That is as reported by Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 July 2019, Moody jet hits bird, drops 3 dummy bombs over N. Florida.

She also interviewed me.

What else is in it? What are the pyrotechnics? What kind of environmental damage could it cause? We don’t really know. We’d like to know.

Doesn’t encourage people to get on the rivers

I certainly wouldn’t tell anybody to stay off the river, but it doesn’t encourage people to get on the river, so it’s a problem from that point of view.

The WCTV report says Moody AFB confirms no injuries or damages have been reported, and neither the Hamilton County nor Suwannee County Sheriff’s offices have any reports of the bombs being found.

No reports to Sheriffs

So why does it matter? Click on the second video in the WCTV link:

Everything around here depends on the water. We drink out of the groundwater, but we use the rivers all the time for recreation: fishing, swimming, boating.

Over Suwannee Springs

And particularly the Florida counties in the Suwannee River Basin, it’s the mainstay of their economy, so…

She didn’t use the bit I said about all those same counties are already banded together to deal with Valdosta wastewater, and they don’t need another stigma on the rivers.

A-10C Warthog

You may recognize the location where I spoke to her as Beatty Branch, downstream from Moody AFB, same location as the December 2018 Atlanta Journal Constitution article about the PFAS firefighting chemicals spilled from Moody AFB. Since December we’ve learned that, according to an Assistant Secretary of the Department of Defense, funds are available and it is possible for Air Force Bases to test private wells, as at least one base in Colorado did.

It’s now seven months since I first asked to meet with Moody about that. Maybe the new Colonel will be more interested in representing Moody AFB, as the pillar of the community it is, in full disclosure.

Meanwhile, as in the previous blog post, if you see this, don’t pick it up, call 229-257-4146 (Moody AFB), or 911.

Photo: Moody AFB: “The BDU-33 is a 25-pound training munition used to simulate the M1a-82 500-pound bomb. It is approximately 22 and a half inches long and is blue in color. Although the training munition is inert, it is equipped with a small pyrotechnic charge and should not be handled.”

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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