ktek01
03-18-2004, 22:31
Looks like one of your 1000A Battlefield Junk Recovery Specialist's (ABN)(HVY)(Fred Sanford) at work. :)
http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state/040318missle.html
Authorities are trying to figure out how an 8-foot missile found its way to a Fort Myers metal scrap yard, sparking an emergency response by local, state and military officials.
“It will probably be a difficult task,” said Larry Long, spokesman for the Southwest Florida Domestic Security Task Force. “We have agents from the task force and the state fire marshal’s who are out right now following up on leads to figure out where the missile came from.”
The discovery came about 3 p.m. Tuesday when a Garden St. Iron & Metal Inc. worker blow-torched the middle of what looked like a piece of corroded steel and aluminum pipe.
Sparks flew.
Smoke shot out the end of the device.
Workers yelled over the radio to Garden St. President Robert Weber, who was working in a crane nearby.
Weber quickly moved the crane’s arm to grab the explosive cylinder as it scooted across the ground. Weber put the missile in a rain puddle in an effort to douse the sparks.
“It didn’t faze it,” he said. “It started hissing and made a jet-enginelike noise.”
Afraid the heat would crack the cement, Weber moved the crane so it would hold the missile about 2 feet above the ground as it fizzled out.
“I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “It just looked like a piece of pipe to me.”
Weber called the Tice fire department to ask what to do with it. Tice passed word on to the Southwest Florida Bomb Squad, which sent someone to inspect it.
“That’s when everybody started showing up,” Weber said.
Deputies cleared 300 feet around the missile, which was in the Garden St. scrap yard off Metro Parkway just south of Hanson Street.
About 9:30 p.m., two members of the U.S. Army’s 766th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, based at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, arrived. The unit responds throughout Florida when suspected military ordnance is discovered.
“When they informed us that it may contain an explosive, that’s when my mentality changed,” Weber said. “It wasn’t funny anymore.”
Military officials pushed people 1,500 feet back from the device as a precaution, Weber said.
Deputies shut down Metro Parkway between Hanson Street and Winkler Avenue while the military pair inspected the device.
About 12:30 a.m., law enforcement officials surrounded the Southwest Florida Regional Bomb Squad trailer transporting the missile as they escorted it to Charlotte County.
It was detonated in a remote area about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. No one was injured.
The Army unit identified the missile as “probably an old Navy training missile,” according to Monique Seaman, spokeswoman for the 766th Explosive Ordinance Company.
The Navy does not have enough information yet to began its own investigation.
“The Navy takes this kind of thing seriously,” said Rick Crews, a Navy spokesman. “There were no numbers or marking on the item found. According to the EOD, it was not possible to identify what it was or where it came from or how long it had been there. From its condition, it was there for many years.”
Weber doesn’t know when the missile arrived at the scrap yard. He said it might have been there for weeks. Authorities checked the yard to make sure there wasn’t any more unexploded ordnance around.
The Southwest Florida Domestic Security Task Force, which is coordinated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, is asking for the public’s help in learning more about the missile.
“Somebody picked up this missile and thought it was scrap and took it to the facility,” Long said. “We want to talk to that person. We want to talk with anyone who has seen this type of device hauled away.”
http://www.news-press.com/news/local_state/040318missle.html
Authorities are trying to figure out how an 8-foot missile found its way to a Fort Myers metal scrap yard, sparking an emergency response by local, state and military officials.
“It will probably be a difficult task,” said Larry Long, spokesman for the Southwest Florida Domestic Security Task Force. “We have agents from the task force and the state fire marshal’s who are out right now following up on leads to figure out where the missile came from.”
The discovery came about 3 p.m. Tuesday when a Garden St. Iron & Metal Inc. worker blow-torched the middle of what looked like a piece of corroded steel and aluminum pipe.
Sparks flew.
Smoke shot out the end of the device.
Workers yelled over the radio to Garden St. President Robert Weber, who was working in a crane nearby.
Weber quickly moved the crane’s arm to grab the explosive cylinder as it scooted across the ground. Weber put the missile in a rain puddle in an effort to douse the sparks.
“It didn’t faze it,” he said. “It started hissing and made a jet-enginelike noise.”
Afraid the heat would crack the cement, Weber moved the crane so it would hold the missile about 2 feet above the ground as it fizzled out.
“I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “It just looked like a piece of pipe to me.”
Weber called the Tice fire department to ask what to do with it. Tice passed word on to the Southwest Florida Bomb Squad, which sent someone to inspect it.
“That’s when everybody started showing up,” Weber said.
Deputies cleared 300 feet around the missile, which was in the Garden St. scrap yard off Metro Parkway just south of Hanson Street.
About 9:30 p.m., two members of the U.S. Army’s 766th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, based at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, arrived. The unit responds throughout Florida when suspected military ordnance is discovered.
“When they informed us that it may contain an explosive, that’s when my mentality changed,” Weber said. “It wasn’t funny anymore.”
Military officials pushed people 1,500 feet back from the device as a precaution, Weber said.
Deputies shut down Metro Parkway between Hanson Street and Winkler Avenue while the military pair inspected the device.
About 12:30 a.m., law enforcement officials surrounded the Southwest Florida Regional Bomb Squad trailer transporting the missile as they escorted it to Charlotte County.
It was detonated in a remote area about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. No one was injured.
The Army unit identified the missile as “probably an old Navy training missile,” according to Monique Seaman, spokeswoman for the 766th Explosive Ordinance Company.
The Navy does not have enough information yet to began its own investigation.
“The Navy takes this kind of thing seriously,” said Rick Crews, a Navy spokesman. “There were no numbers or marking on the item found. According to the EOD, it was not possible to identify what it was or where it came from or how long it had been there. From its condition, it was there for many years.”
Weber doesn’t know when the missile arrived at the scrap yard. He said it might have been there for weeks. Authorities checked the yard to make sure there wasn’t any more unexploded ordnance around.
The Southwest Florida Domestic Security Task Force, which is coordinated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, is asking for the public’s help in learning more about the missile.
“Somebody picked up this missile and thought it was scrap and took it to the facility,” Long said. “We want to talk to that person. We want to talk with anyone who has seen this type of device hauled away.”