Anti-tank missiles in Leesburg, VA
Pat sends us a link to an article about a Virginia neighborhood that was evacuated when a woman discovered two projectiles in her garden shed. The news and the police are calling them “anti-tank missiles”, but they don’t look like missiles to me, but I’m not sure what they are, you, know, me being a dumbass infantryman who only stuck to his job for twenty years.
Police went door-to-door to evacuate the area, the mayor said.
“The revised and current evaluation of the ordinance is that they are anti-tank missiles, possibly from Desert Storm,” Umstattd said. “They are armed….The ordinance will have to be transported by the military to a safe location.”
Category: Who knows
Part of these objects look like a 105mm round without the canister for the powder. But those fins don’t look functional. If they are real, they could be used as an IED.
As for the “Desert Storm” BS, in the 90s we were using up the artillery stockage built up for Viet Nam. We may be using stocks manufactured during Desert Storm nowadays.
fin/spin stabilized HEAT round. not sure on size
some dumb vet tossed it out or dumb joe did it to avoid formation
Damn sure it is no missile! A projectile yes- missile no.
106mm HEAT Projo. The fins, in working condition are spring loaded to pop out 90 degrees to the center axis. Used in the 106mm recoilless rifle.
George: “Where’s that damn weedwhacker?”
Betty: “I moved it to the shed, honey. It’s next to the anti-tank missiles.”
@4. Good call. Here’s pic of one not in very good shape.
http://www.uxoinfo.com/uxoinfo/FXTour.cfm?ID=4755&ImageUrl=phototour
Yeah, I was thinking that it was a 106 or 90mm round for the older recoiless rifles. But it certainly predates Desert Storm by a decade.
I’m an artillery officer, and I have no idea what those are. Time for some research.
Beat me to it, evidently.
Jarts?
Joes will do the damndest things. At first report last night, I thought this was another empty LAW or Stinger tube. Guess not.
We had a knucklehead take home a couple 20mm rounds at Ft Carson and put them on his fireplace mantle. Electronically primed Vulcan 20mm rounds, dude wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Some guy years ago. probably not the brightest crayon in the box took this home after a range sweep. I once took home an expended illumination round from a 105. Completely harmless, but would look dangerous as hell to someone who didnt know better.
So that’s where my yard art went. I wondered.
Looks like an M344 HEAT round
Bottle rockets not good enough for them??
Ah heck, back during WWII, some GI’s down to Fort Benning, I believe, brought back a couple cannon balls they found and used them as andirons in the barrack’s fireplace (brick, in the old wooden barracks). They didn’t realize they were unexploded spherical case and not solid shot. They exploded and killed/injured several of them.
I suspect this sort of thing has been going on for as long as gunpowder has been involved with military ops. In every unit, there is always that “one guy”.
looks like an AT4 rocket
When I first got to the USS Proteus (yeah, that long ago) just before they did the Aussie/Decom run, at indoc they told us NOT to pick up any UXO that we might run across when we went hiking through the jungle.
Well, apparently a couple of dipshits failed to heed the warning. I was on duty one night when General Quarters was called away. To have that done on ANY ship in port is rare–on a tender it’s UNHEARD of. Seems these yutes found a couple of WWII hand grenades and stuck them in their work space, which just happened to be the radio shack, and their chief found them sitting on top of one of the radio racks.
The stupid shall be punished, and in that case, they were.
M344 HEAT 106mm Recoilless
http://maic.jmu.edu/ordata/images/D/D1158U01.JPG
http://maic.jmu.edu/ordata/images/D/D1158F01.JPG
http://maic.jmu.edu/ordata/images/D/D1158P01.JPG
While the neighborhood was being evacuated, did the po-po go thru the houses and confiscate the guns??
@ 20. No, this is not Canada… yet…
106mm HEAT. I was AT Platoon leader for my battalion, 1975-76 and we transitioned from the M40A1 RCL to M220 TOW in late 75, I’d say even Guard had transitioned by 80…so they aint Desert Storm vintage. I’ve gotta hunch these are inert dummy rounds used as training aids and sold as surplus way back when….