HPLC is an excellent alternative method for the analysis of explosives, primarily because the analysis can be conducted at room temperature, thus resolving the problem of thermal instability encountered with the use of gas chromatography (GC). The current study involved the rapid separation of 11 commercial and military-grade explosives by HPLC, using monolithic reversed-phase columns of various lengths. This paper describes the instrumentation and reagents used, as well as the soil extractions that were spiked with 20 mg of each explosive. The discussion of the results focuses on the efficiency of short monolithic silica columns, the rapid gradient separation of commercial explosives, the effect of temperature, the length of monolithic column, the separation of seven explosives in under 2 minutes, the analytical performance data, and the extraction and rapid analysis of spiked soil samples. The authors advise that this method can be used to identify the presence of classes of explosives at the rate of approximately 20 samples per hour. The detection and quantification of individual explosives was achieved by using a slower gradient that allowed baseline resolution of all 11 explosive compounds in less than 13 minutes. The method determined the presence of explosives in spiked soil samples, with recoveries of approximately 70 percent, demonstrating the method's use with real samples. 5 tables, 6 figures, and 10 references