Background research day
David Sandiford organised a series of meetings and visits to potential sites for the monument by way of introducing me to the field of mine disposal and safe rendering of live ordnance. In a nutshell, we, the general public, have little or no idea of what these teams of calm, sensitive service men and women do on our behalf. To give you an idea, the team I met at the Defence Diving School, Horsea Island are called out to attend to an actual or suspect bomb approximately every 18 hours....and that is just one team....and that means that, despite the high level of training, skill and equipment, their lives are at very real risk once a day; and people are killed in the course of this work. At risk of sounding pompous I felt, at the end of this day, a desire to say a big thank you to these men and women, on behalf of us all. Here are a few pictures from the day First stop HMS Collingwood to measure up a MkXVII mine. Next, the Diving Museum at Gosport courtesy of John Beva