Never heard that before,............

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Posted by CAL on May 01, 2003 at 11:50:25:

In Reply to: Never heard that before,............ posted by Kerby... on May 01, 2003 at 10:55:25:

::)I'm not saying that the Army has never contracted out for snake removal, but when I was in the Infantry for 9 years it never happened nor have I heard it of ever happening. I spent time at Ft. Riley, KS; Ft. Benning, GA; Ft. Jackson, SC; and out here in Arizona teaching Army ROTC at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ with numerous FTXs to Ft. Huachuca, AZ and to a training site just south of Florence Junction. In all those cases (Riley, Benning, Jackson & Florence) it was the personnel with Range Control (who are in charge of the training areas) that did the snake removal. Never had I heard of it being contracted out. At those duty stations the OIC of the range would do a walk-through and remove snakes from the range, especially the ones that were in the pits. I've seen rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, and coral snakes on those ranges as well as a lot of non-vens. In April of 1992 at the site just south of Florence Junction we had Army ROTC cadets from NAU, ERAU, ASU and UofA for the 3-day FTX and the rattlesnakes got so bad that I (CPT Ross at the time) was put in charge of removing the rattlesnakes as they were encounter plus doing a walk through in the morning. On the STRAC lanes I removed 23 WDBs during those 3 short days.

:I think that getting info from the Armed Forces may not be that easy and IMO NOT ACCURATE.

:Snake encounters on FTX were common and never reported.

:Kerby...

The person that I received the information from is a retired Lt.Col from the Louisiana Air National Guard. During the first Persian Gulf war, he was called to active duty and sent to a base outside of Omaha. His function was as a co-ordinator between air and ground forces training with an aircraft they called the 'Warthog". Anyway, in that position, he was responsible for such things as safety. he told me that the Army had contracted out some people to locate and remove venoumous snakes from the area where the training was to take place. Also, they were contracted to be close by and on call. During the training period, he received several calls from the field with reports of snakes which he dispatched to the people on call. he also, said he signed the bills for the service. as he recalls, they were from Oklahoma St. University. Hopes this helps.Thank you

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