From Bomb Craters to Fish Farms

n the aftermath of the USAF’s 1972 “Operation Linebacker” B-52 bombing campaign over North Vietnam the rural agricultural area of Dong Set resembled a cratered moonscape. The local population allowed these craters to fill with water, and stocked them with fish, ducks, and geese, and then tended and improved them. Forty-two years later the Dong Set area produces 500 tons of fish annually from those re-purposed bomb holes. People can recover from the destruction of war in amazing ways if they’re given the chance to.