Source: US FBI
Some families of aging U.S. war veterans are finding unexpected, and highly dangerous, souvenirs among their loved ones’ belongings—ticking time bombs.
Service members either brought the devices home from their combat service or purchased them later. Most of the devices found today come from World War I (which the U.S. entered 105 years ago this month), World War II, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War.
Known as military ordnance, these devices can remain intact for decades but explode without notice. They are highly dangerous, and only a trained bomb technician should handle them.
That’s exactly what the FBI’s bomb technicians do.
FBI bomb squads have disabled explosive material from as early as the Civil War; the Army Corps of Engineers found cannonballs from that era at the bottom of the Mississippi River when they were dredging in January.
“Usually what happens is when a veteran passes away, and family members are cleaning out their items, usually in a basement, garage, or attic, they’ll come across something that they know or suspect is a military ordnance,” said Special Agent Patrick Carolan, a bomb technician with the FBI’s St. Louis Field Office. “They call their local police, and we work with the police department’s bomb squad.”