'40S BOMB RANGE STILL YIELDS BITS OF MILITARY HARDWARE; MAN FINDS SHRAPNEL IN DESERT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

It was Donald Cowan's job of cleaning up military detritus that led him to wonder about the brush-covered no-man's land between Mojave and California City used as bombing ranges during World War II.

Back in 1942, Mojave Airport was a Marine air base, home to pilots who trained by dropping sand-loaded bombs with spot charges to tell them if they hit their targets.

``There are three bombing ranges out there located between Mojave and California City, dead center between the two towns,'' said Cowan, an environmental project manager at Edwards Air Force Base and a former trustee with the Mojave Unified School District. ``They were used for training pilots and training ground personnel and ground support for World War II.''

One Saturday about eight months ago, Cowan, who lives in California City, drove out to the area himself to check out what kind of vintage debris was still out there.

He found targets marked out on the ground by white gravel, and standing targets showing signs of where bombs had hit them.

``You can see bomb fragments. They are everywhere out there. You can see bits and pieces of some things fired that resemble missiles. They are just lying there,'' Cowan said.

He touched the fin of a partially buried bomb and wiped off the dirt to uncover what he thought was a serial number, but it turned out to be some kind of coded number describing a part.

The area's accessibility concerned Cowan, prompting him to contact Kern County officials to alert them to the potential dangers.

``I'm just afraid kids will get around to it and have a problem,'' said Cowan, whose work at the base includes ``subsurface cleanup'' of bombs buried underground and not visible. ``Some of these test bombs have a spot charge in the back. That's enough to hurt somebody or kill them.''

Anyone who finds an old bomb, Cowan advises, should call the local police department so it can notify the Army to dispose of it.

``No one should pick it up and try to take it anywhere. They should leave it right where it is and report it,'' Cowan said.

State officials said they are already aware of the bombing ranges in the Mojave area and have sent staffers to inspect them, said Ron Baker, a spokesman for California Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Toxics.

The Department of Defense for the past year has been conducting a survey to determine where bombing and shooting ranges are, a process prompted by base closings, Baker said. The survey will finish sometime in mid-1998.

``Many of the bases in World War II were out in rural areas where there was not a whole lot of development taking place. Now development is encroaching on those areas,'' Baker said. ``We will take that into consideration to determine which to tackle first.''

The cleanup would be handled by the Army Corps of Engineers.

``Seven to 10 percent of all bombs that are dropped do not explode. They are, in layman's terms, broke,'' Baker said. ``We look at unexploded ordnance falling under the purview of the Army Corps of Engineers. They have sonar equipment needed to search for ordnance and are trained in exploding ones that need to be exploded and transferring those that are stable to a proper location to be exploded or destroyed.''

Cowan added that unexploded bombs by force of impact bury themselves quite deep in the ground, sometimes as much as six feet, but slowly work their way up to the surface. The cooling and warming of the earth causes the object to move upward, Cowan said.

Cowan said the Corps of Engineers was responsible for clearing the ranges before the leased land was returned to Kern County in 1962.

``I don't think (the ranges) are quite ready yet. At least I wouldn't want to live out there,'' Cowan said.

Kern County officials say there have been incidents of residents finding military items but recall no instances of people being injured or killed.

``Different people have found bombs, some lying in the desert,'' said Wayne Dickerson, acting chief of the California City Police Department. ``One man found one while digging a pole for a clothesline.''

Dickerson said it was a 10- to 12-inch dummy practice bomb with four fins.

``The military came out of one of the bases and disposed of it,'' Dickerson said.

Dickerson said prior to his arrival 20 years ago, California City workers paving a road found a 500-pound bomb with a charge.