Another Civil War casualty

[geopop71]

In this mornings paper was a story all too familiar. A Civil war buff who collects cannon balls was killed when a nine inch 75 lb Naval cannon ball he was "de-activating" exploded killing him. They said "he knew what he was doing"
The shell had a complicated fuze but he was familiar with them. It was in his driveway. His name was Dan White from Virginia. He had a wife and son.
Leave the damn things alone!!
geopop

[Glenn Barbaritz]

We all can only tempt Fate so many times... Im not mocking Him just stating the unfotunate fact whether it be this example or drunk driving, mountain climbing or sky diving. at least He went from His passion, if thats any consolation. Glenn

[Dr. Strangelove]

dark

I feel bad for the Son he left behind, but "My Dad died as a result of the Civil War in 2008", wierd.

[james m]

It also stated in our paper that he had de-activated around 1800 of them previously. Messing around with this stuff has always struck me as a form of Russian Roulette. It has always amazed me how potent old ordanance and ammunition remains. I have a bunch of 45 ammo headstamped from WW I and it still shoots reliably at 90 years old.
Jim

[Bill Grist]

News Link.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353998,00.html

[pete]

.

The thing is they dont know what they dont know.......best left to EOD......period.



Best,

Pete

[MikeW]

Didn't this also happen to someone else some months back?

[adlerfan53]

This is sad. I can understand his passion as a collector though. Accidents do happen and it looks like his luck ran out. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

[Bob Coleman]

AROUND 25 YEARS AGO, A VET BROUGHT A GERMAN BUTTERFLY BOMB AND A BOUNCING BETTY IN TO MY MOTEL BUY ALONG WITH OTHER ITEMS. HE WAS AN ENGINEER DURING THE WAR AND DEACTIVATED MINES. WITHOUT TOUCHING THEM, I ASKED THE MAN " THEY ARE DEACTIVATED, RIGHT?" BEFORE I COULD REACT, HE GRABBED ONE OF THEM AND BEGAN TO TAKE IT APART. BEFORE I COULD SCREAM, HE SAID " YEP, NOW LET ME CHECK THE OTHER ONE."

[Panzer Rob]

Quote from his wife:

"I used to laugh at him and say, 'Why do you watch this? You know how it turned out. It's not going to be any different,"' Brenda White said.

She didn't share her husband's devotion, but she was understanding of his interest.


Not to make a joke out of this, but it almost sounds as if she's glad he's gone! Where’s the sympathy and remorse in THAT statement?



"After White's death, about two dozen homes were evacuated for two days while explosives experts collected pieces from his collection and detonated them."

Jee-zus.... Be careful with those supposedly 'inert' potato mashers and tellermines, or your collections could very well be spread into the wind


Rob

[james m]

A few years back I was going over a WW II vets bringbacks which had been packed away since the end of the war. He was pulling wrapped items out of a duffel bag and handing them to me. When he handed me one item I could tell by the shape and feel it was a potato masher grenade. I immediately asked him if it had been deactivated and he told me he couldn't remember. I gingerly unwrapped it and was able to see it was deactivated but this really gave me a start.
Jim

[Steven Baumgartner]

Quote from his wife:

"I used to laugh at him and say, 'Why do you watch this? You know how it turned out. It's not going to be any different,"' Brenda White said.

She didn't share her husband's devotion, but she was understanding of his interest.


Not to make a joke out of this, but it almost sounds as if she's glad he's gone! Where’s the sympathy and remorse in THAT statement?

Rob

Rob, her quote was in reference to his repeatedly watching the same episodes on the History Channel over and over again. Which is easy to do as they replay the same show every 4 hours it seems!

[Asbjoern]

...and often things are not what you think they are ... 5 years ago a guy from the Magdeburge area in germany was killed by a 15 cm grenade he found on the ground of the former Hillersleben Heeresversuchsstelle in the Letzlinger Heide. As many times before he thought that he tried to deactivate a standart 15 cm and tried to heat it a little for that the fuse could be removed easier ... But he was wrong as it was a experimental round with no visible difference but with pikrin-säure (acid) as explosive... and pikrin- säure is very sensible to heat... .
His 3 year old son was killed at once as the hut with his workshop was fragmented, leaving a crater with 5 m diameter. His legs were torn off and he died three day later...
His relatives said he was an expert with many years of experience...
The EOD guys said anybody could be lucky that he did work in a hut in a garden area and not in the cellar of his apartment house...

You may have luck 1500 times, but for what reason when no 1501 goes wrong??

Jens