Published: Aug 15, 2006 - 10:48:16 pm EDT

WWI bombs destroyed at base

By Kate House-Layton, Delaware State News

DOVER - Members of a special Army unit were at Dover Air Force Base Tuesday to start destroying six World War I-era mustard gas bombs that a Milford seafood processing plant found earlier this year. The Army's Chemical Materials Agency, using a technology called the Explosive Destruction System, destroyed three of the 75 mm rounds on Tuesday, said agency spokeswoman Karen Drewen. The rest will be destroyed later this week and early next week at the base. Mustard gas was a commonly used chemical weapon during World War I. Highly caustic, the vapor blistered the skin and caused lung damage if inhaled. It got its name, Ms. Drewen said, from the vapor's yellowish color and horseradish or mustard odor. Until the early 1960s, unused rounds of the weapon were disposed into oceans, only to surface decades later. Employees of the Milford-based Sea Watch seafood processing company found four of the rounds in February, another in March and one more in July in a deliveries of clams dredged from the Atlantic coast, Ms. Drewen said. Dover Air Force Base stored the munitions until they could be destroyed. Members of the Army unit, based at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds at Aberdeen, Md., destroyed the weapons in a secured area at the south end of Dover Air Force Base. They opened the round into pieces and then chemically neutralized the agent inside. The unit has safely and effectively destroyed more than 500 items throughout the country, Ms. Drewen said. Explosives that have been found are brought to the nearest military base in that state that can accept them, she said. This is the fourth time the unit has come to Delaware to destroy old war munitions. The unit also came in October 2004, August 2005 and February. The Army Corps of Engineers has been investigating the clam dredging area since the bombs were found, Ms. Drewen said. Any munitions should be treated with caution, she said, not kept as a souvenir. "If you see something that looks like a munition, do not touch it, get away from it, keep other people away from it and call 911," Ms. Drewen said. "It's not a lawn ornament it's a munition." Post your opinions in the Public Issues Forum at newszap.com Staff writer Kate House-Layton can be reached at 741-8242 or khouse@newszap.com

Submitted photo/U.S. Army U.S. Army personnel destroyed World War I-era mustard gas bombs at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday. The equipment they use contains all blast, vapor and metal fragments from the items, protecting the surrounding environment and its operators.