Post by connie on Nov 21, 2011 17:50:59 GMT -5
This account was forwarded by Jim West. It comes from the area near Camp Atterbury where the men of the 106th were stationed in the summer of 1944:
It also falls under the category of close calls:
FRANKLIN, IND. — A central Indiana woman hoping to donate a grenade that had been stored in her family’s attic to a new Indiana National Guard Armory got an unsettling surprise when a bomb squad found that the device wasn’t a dud.
Sheila Hood asked a soldier at Monday’s armory dedication in Franklin if someone could inspect the grenade so she could donate it as an artifact. Because she wasn’t sure if the device was live, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Darren Minnemann advised her to first have a police bomb squad check it out.
A Johnson County bomb squad found that the rusted grenade sitting at the top of a steamer-style trunk filled with old books, photographs and family memorabilia still had the fuse that would cause it to explode if the pin were pulled, the Daily Journal reported.
The pin was only half way in the grenade.
No one was sure how long the pin had been sticking out, but the grenade could have exploded if it slid out any more, bomb squad member Tevis McLaughlin said.
“The explosives in these grenades are very stable,” he said. “You could pull it off the shelf after 40 years and it would still work.”
Police planned to take it to Camp Atterbury, where it will be detonated.
McLaughlin said the grenade may date from the Korean War or World War II.
Hood said the grenade had been in the house for decades, but she wasn’t sure how it got there. She’s just glad it’s gone now.
“I don’t even want to think about all the time it was up there,” she said.
Minnemann said he was glad Hood called police because the grenade could have detonated if it were jostled while the trunk was moved.
“She saved lives,” he said. “She saved lives by calling police.”
It also falls under the category of close calls:
FRANKLIN, IND. — A central Indiana woman hoping to donate a grenade that had been stored in her family’s attic to a new Indiana National Guard Armory got an unsettling surprise when a bomb squad found that the device wasn’t a dud.
Sheila Hood asked a soldier at Monday’s armory dedication in Franklin if someone could inspect the grenade so she could donate it as an artifact. Because she wasn’t sure if the device was live, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Darren Minnemann advised her to first have a police bomb squad check it out.
A Johnson County bomb squad found that the rusted grenade sitting at the top of a steamer-style trunk filled with old books, photographs and family memorabilia still had the fuse that would cause it to explode if the pin were pulled, the Daily Journal reported.
The pin was only half way in the grenade.
No one was sure how long the pin had been sticking out, but the grenade could have exploded if it slid out any more, bomb squad member Tevis McLaughlin said.
“The explosives in these grenades are very stable,” he said. “You could pull it off the shelf after 40 years and it would still work.”
Police planned to take it to Camp Atterbury, where it will be detonated.
McLaughlin said the grenade may date from the Korean War or World War II.
Hood said the grenade had been in the house for decades, but she wasn’t sure how it got there. She’s just glad it’s gone now.
“I don’t even want to think about all the time it was up there,” she said.
Minnemann said he was glad Hood called police because the grenade could have detonated if it were jostled while the trunk was moved.
“She saved lives,” he said. “She saved lives by calling police.”
