Spring Break
Geography professor explains battle's impact on soil quality
First major environmental damage began with World War I, still continues
Luke Anderson
Issue date: 3/2/09 Section: Campus News
"You can't really say that this landscape recovered," he said. "Not only did you have a lot of forested areas deforested but you also had a lot of areas, such as villages, that were obliterated."
Hupy traveled to Khe Sanh in 2006, a site of a siege during the Vietnam War and saw a concentrated amount of disturbance in a tight area, he said.
"In the three official months of that siege, there were more munitions dropped on Khe Sanh than in all of the Pacific theater of World War II," he said.
While Verdun was more of a large memorial landscape, Hupy said Khe Sanh has people living on it, which can be dangerous. Like Verdun, there are still weapons on site.
Local village people collect the metal from weapons and bring them to a scrap dealer.
"This battlefield is fairly clean when it comes to the unexploded remnants of war because a lot of this has been taking off," Hupy said. "You have to be careful because they burn areas to keep them from reforesting."
Hupy has even applied his work to his classes. Last fall, Hupy had students participate in a number of different activities relating to military geography. The students used navigational techniques using geographical informational systems, performed computer mapping and engaged in an exercise where they played paintball and capture the flag.
Alumni program assistant Jane Larson said she enjoyed learning more about environmental impacts.
"It was very interesting. You don't realize that much stuff (unexploded weapons) is still out there," she said. "The huge holes from war everywhere were surprising to see."
Hupy said the military has used his work to apply to overseas campaigns and for use of their training grounds.
"I like to see that I am helping out the military engage in a winning campaign without doing things in a wrong way."
Hupy traveled to Khe Sanh in 2006, a site of a siege during the Vietnam War and saw a concentrated amount of disturbance in a tight area, he said.
"In the three official months of that siege, there were more munitions dropped on Khe Sanh than in all of the Pacific theater of World War II," he said.
While Verdun was more of a large memorial landscape, Hupy said Khe Sanh has people living on it, which can be dangerous. Like Verdun, there are still weapons on site.
Local village people collect the metal from weapons and bring them to a scrap dealer.
"This battlefield is fairly clean when it comes to the unexploded remnants of war because a lot of this has been taking off," Hupy said. "You have to be careful because they burn areas to keep them from reforesting."
Hupy has even applied his work to his classes. Last fall, Hupy had students participate in a number of different activities relating to military geography. The students used navigational techniques using geographical informational systems, performed computer mapping and engaged in an exercise where they played paintball and capture the flag.
Alumni program assistant Jane Larson said she enjoyed learning more about environmental impacts.
"It was very interesting. You don't realize that much stuff (unexploded weapons) is still out there," she said. "The huge holes from war everywhere were surprising to see."
Hupy said the military has used his work to apply to overseas campaigns and for use of their training grounds.
"I like to see that I am helping out the military engage in a winning campaign without doing things in a wrong way."
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William Hupy
posted 3/03/09 @ 10:23 AM CST
This is an excellent article. It is concise yet conveyed all necessary information, but then, I may be biased, as the subject of the article is my son. (Continued…)
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