Marines Seek More Bucks for the Bang : Recycling: Recovering metals from a Camp Pendleton firing range may prove to be a money-maker.

For nearly half a century, the Marine Corps has ambitiously bombed, strafed, shelled and rocketed a vast and otherwise pleasant area of Camp Pendleton to practice for war.

Now, in a modern variation of turning swords into plowshares, the Corps is discovering that the generations of exploded metals might be recycled to make money for such peaceful activities as child care and environmental efforts at the base.

For the last two weeks, 86 Marines have combed a firing range with excruciating caution while detonating dud ordnance and gingerly collecting tons of bent and twisted metals that are a virtual archive of military munitions since World War II.

“We’re trying to catch up to the 1940s,” said Capt. Jack Bell, who is supervising the field operation as Camp Pendleton’s senior officer from Explosive Ordnance Disposal. “I’ve got 10 years worth of work here.”

For all the labor and danger involved, the unusual recycling effort may provide the Marines with something they want as much as weapons in these days of dwindling military budgets--money.

Amy Duncan, a civilian recycling specialist at the base, said the Marine Corps has high hopes that gathering used ordnance will become a profitable part of a broader recycling program that has earned about $1.5 million for the base since fiscal year 1988. “We hope it’s going to be a money-making project. I don’t see how it can’t be,” Duncan said.

The Marines have diligently collected brass cartridge casings from the rifle and pistol ranges for 20 years, but Camp Pendleton’s enormous firing area for heavier weapons has been largely unculled since the base opened in 1942.

Every year, demolition experts mince through the three parts of the remote firing range, euphemistically termed the “impact area,” to find and blow up anything that didn’t explode upon delivery. Last year, more than 7,000 dangerous dud rounds were set off, and 6,480 have been handled so far this year.

It was only last year that Marines actually began harvesting an assortment of dead ordnance from the range. But the yield was only 12 tons, and the material fetched a meager return because it was left in the remote area for buyers to pack up and transport.

This year promises to bring the first real bumper crop of aluminum and steel as the Marine Corps gleans far more material and prepares to do a more aggressive job of marketing it.

Since Dec. 11, the Marines have gathered 69 tons of aluminum, and estimate that they will have 90 tons by the end of the cleanup. They have also collected tons of recyclable scrap metal, but a figure was not immediately available.

The Marines won’t know how much the material will sell for until early next year, when bids are sought. But, according to the Escondido Recycling Center, a ton of aluminum can fetch about $1,250, depending on where it is sold.

The range, a flat area overlooked by hills, is laden with remnants of bombs that weighed up to 500 pounds, rockets from planes and helicopters, artillery and mortar shells, and some projectiles even Bell has been unable to identify yet.

The enterprise has also turned into a chance for Bell to gather a team of demolitions experts and train with a seemingly limitless supply of explosive devices. “I brought in (demolition) technicians in from all over the States for this,” Bell said.

Because of what Bell calls the “extreme element” of risk, a detail of 54 Marines ventures into the firing range with his 32 demolition experts, who first find and explode the duds.

“Anybody who goes downrange gets a safety class before they go in,” Bell said.

Dust-covered Marines pick through the fields of fallen projectiles from 7:30 a.m. until 2:30.

“It gets tiring,” said Staff Sgt. Brent Benson. “You’re handling a lot of 155 (millimeter artillery) rounds that weigh about 100 pounds.”

Besides the earnings and training aspects, Bell sees the operation as simply the sensible thing to do.

“We’re in fact cleaning up after ourselves finally, and we’re paying ourselves to do it. We’re the ones to benefit,” he said.

Camp Pendleton is not the only base to accept the age of environmental concern and limited resources. But, with 35,000 people on base and extensive training with a variety of arms, it is one of the largest military sites of reusable metals in the nation.

“Camp Pendleton is the most active training base” in the military, said Lt. Patrick Gibbons, a base public affairs officer.

Some other bases have had trouble with scavengers sneaking in to search for recyclable materials. At Camp Pendleton, though, the firing range is remote and watched around the clock, and would offer intruders only peril.

“There’s a tremendous amount of unexploded ordnance in these areas,” said Bell, warning that the slightest touch can detonate a round that may look harmless.

Once the program’s overhead is paid, profits from recycling will be split. Half will go for on-base child care and recreation, the other half for environmental programs.

Duncan is trying to expand recycling, which already takes in a broad assortment of materials, to someday include curbside recycling and more.

The progress so far has delighted Lt. Col. Tony Pack, who, as deputy chief of staff for facilities, has put a stronger emphasis on recycling. “I think no one had realized the potential of the program,” he said.