News, Bomb donated to Kodiak museum goes out with a bang. (WWII, war)

[JD59]

KODIAK, Alaska - A World War II relic that was displayed outside an Alaska bar for years turned out not to be a dud.

Soldiers on Wednesday detonated the 1,263-pound aerial bomb.

Bomb donated to Kodiak museum goes out with a bang - U.S. news- msnbc.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34868834/ns/us_news/ - broken link)

[msgsing]

Bombs, ammo etc can have a long shelf life. Our local paper carried a story today about Vietnamese who have been seriously wounded by buried munitions from the 1960's. Some time ago I recall seeing a news story regarding a civil war collector who was killed while tinkering with an 1860's era shell he had recently purchased.

[Dane_in_LA]

Unexploded ordnance is no joking matter.

I lived in Hamburg for few years, and a lot of construction projects in the old dock quarter would close down traffic for hours as the Himmelfahrtskommando (lit., more or less, "Skybound Detachment") defused WWII bombs left over from Bomber Command's operation Gomorra (lit., what it sounds like).

Not a job for the timid.