Explain why a 2000 search found no records about DU, but a later records search did. Did the Army conceal the presence of DU in Hawaii because it is, or was, classified information?
The Army did not intentionally conceal its past use of DU in Hawaii. At the time, we made a good faith effort to determine the facts by searching local records from all Military Services in Hawaii. Our focus, however, was on modern kinetic munitions that contain DU penetrators. The Davy Crocket was a classified weapon system, that actually used munitions containing DU, and trained in Hawaii in the early 1960s. We had no contemporary experience with this weapon system. Until we discovered DU on a Schofield Barracks range during range clearance activities in 2005, we had no local knowledge that the M101 spotting round had been fired in Hawaii.
