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Subdeacon Joe

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https://wcti12.com/news/offbeat/live-civil-war-era-cannonball-found-in-frederick-county-destroyed

 

BOMB SQUAD SAFELY DISPOSES OF CIVIL WAR ROUND

FREDERICK COUNTY, MD (March 23, 2021) - A team of Bomb Technicians from the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) safely disposed of a Civil War-era piece ordnance yesterday evening after being discovered in Frederick County. The unexploded military ordnance was determined to be a live cannonball round used during the Civil War. Bomb Technicians conducted diagnostics and determined the fusing mechanism was still intact.

A homeowner of Glen Hill Court in Jefferson contacted the Office of the State Fire Marshal after being told by a family member the cannonball was possibly live. The homeowner was given the cannonball by another family member who had earlier discovered it near the Monocacy Battlefield. After examining the cannonball, Bomb Technicians safely removed and transported it to the Beaver Creek Quarry in Hagerstown. It was determined the best course of action was to conduct an emergency disposal to render the ordnance safe.

Maryland has a long history of military testing, most notably at Aberdeen Proving Ground, on the Chesapeake Bay shores in Harford County. Unexploded military ordnance in the Bay and surrounding waters occasionally makes its way to the surface. However, the discovery of military ordnance is not limited to tidal waters. As proven today, the finding of military ordnance from the Civil War is not uncommon in Maryland, and these devices pose the same threat as the day they were initially manufactured. “If you should uncover or are unsure if an unidentified object may be military ordnance, be safe rather than sorry. Stay away and call 911,” stated State Fire Marshal Brian S. Geraci, “Marylanders need to be mindful that military ordnance, even vintage artifacts from previous conflicts, have the potential to explode.”

The Office of the State Fire Marshal Bomb Squad would like to thank the Beaver Creek Quarry and its employees for using their facilities. Bomb Technicians have conducted numerous emergency disposals over the years on the grounds of their property. Their assistance has kept Bomb Technicians and citizens safe from these potentially dangerous devices.

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11 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 After examining the cannonball, Bomb Technicians safely removed and transported it to the Beaver Creek Quarry in Hagerstown. It was determined the best course of action was to conduct an emergency disposal to render the ordnance safe.

 How did they do that I wonder?

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Years ago when I was in the Navy my wife and I had an apartment in Norfolk VA. Near the complex there was a swamp. One day I hiked into this swamp with a shipmate just for something to do. 
We came across a pond that looked like it might have fish in it and while we were checking it out I turned and saw something white, like a missile fin sticking up out of the muck amongst some brambles. We went over and started kicking the brush away and pulled out the tail end of a rocket. It was white, had 4 fins on it. It was hollow. Nothing but the outer skin. It was just the tail end of a rocket about 3 - 3 1/2 feet long and maybe a foot in diameter. No military markings on it at all, inside or out. 
I decided to carry this thing out and clean it up. I thought it would make a cool stand for something. 
Anyway, this know-it-all butthead ex-Army officer, the bane of the community, saw me with this thing and immediately decided that he needed to get involved. For some reason he thought he somehow had sway over me as he “Was an officer in the United States Army!”

I ignored him and took my prize home. Shortly the police arrived, the fire department arrived, detectives arrived, the bomb squad arrived, then the Army arrived.  
Long story short the fire department found 5 more of these rocket tails in the swamp. It was determined that they were Army test rocket sections. 
The bomb squad wanted to blow them up. 
The fire department wanted them for decorations. 
The butthead felt that they should be his as he was an Army Officer and all that. 
The police just wanted this neighborhood fiasco to end. 
But the Army had the final say. They took my prize and the 5 others and left. 
 

In the end it was determined that the rocket sections were from some experimental rockets from the 50’s that the Army had tested. No one knew how or why those particular sections ended up in that swamp but since there were no official military markings in them it was decided the manufacturer must have just had some spare parts and someone disposed of them in a swamp in the middle of nowhere and the neighborhood eventually grew up around the area. 
 

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12 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

https://wcti12.com/news/offbeat/live-civil-war-era-cannonball-found-in-frederick-county-destroyed

 

BOMB SQUAD SAFELY DISPOSES OF CIVIL WAR ROUND

FREDERICK COUNTY, MD (March 23, 2021) - A team of Bomb Technicians from the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) safely disposed of a Civil War-era piece ordnance yesterday evening after being discovered in Frederick County. The unexploded military ordnance was determined to be a live cannonball round used during the Civil War. Bomb Technicians conducted diagnostics and determined the fusing mechanism was still intact.

A homeowner of Glen Hill Court in Jefferson contacted the Office of the State Fire Marshal after being told by a family member the cannonball was possibly live. The homeowner was given the cannonball by another family member who had earlier discovered it near the Monocacy Battlefield. After examining the cannonball, Bomb Technicians safely removed and transported it to the Beaver Creek Quarry in Hagerstown. It was determined the best course of action was to conduct an emergency disposal to render the ordnance safe.

Maryland has a long history of military testing, most notably at Aberdeen Proving Ground, on the Chesapeake Bay shores in Harford County. Unexploded military ordnance in the Bay and surrounding waters occasionally makes its way to the surface. However, the discovery of military ordnance is not limited to tidal waters. As proven today, the finding of military ordnance from the Civil War is not uncommon in Maryland, and these devices pose the same threat as the day they were initially manufactured. “If you should uncover or are unsure if an unidentified object may be military ordnance, be safe rather than sorry. Stay away and call 911,” stated State Fire Marshal Brian S. Geraci, “Marylanders need to be mindful that military ordnance, even vintage artifacts from previous conflicts, have the potential to explode.”

The Office of the State Fire Marshal Bomb Squad would like to thank the Beaver Creek Quarry and its employees for using their facilities. Bomb Technicians have conducted numerous emergency disposals over the years on the grounds of their property. Their assistance has kept Bomb Technicians and citizens safe from these potentially dangerous devices.

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They did a Grey's Anatomy on that subject!

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