THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410240227
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
Naval explosives experts have destroyed a 550-pound rocket found at a salvage yard on Turnpike Road earlier this week.
The device - described as an 11.75-inch Tiny Tim - had a warhead loaded with 130 pounds of explosives, according to Lt. Bret Reissner, the officer in charge of an ordnance disposal unit in Norfolk.
``It was a live piece of military ordnance that was fused,'' Reissner said. ``It was potentially dangerous.''
The rocket was taken to the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and destroyed on Thursday, Reissner said.
Reissner said the rocket was a post-World War II weapon that might have been constructed so that it could be fired from a ship. How it got to the salvage yard is not known, he said.
The rocket, along with a much smaller and harmless practice bomb, was found Wednesday at Chesapeake Salvage and Trucking. The property was being cleaned by its owner, Eugene Spires, when the rocket and practice bomb were found.
Spires reported the finding first to the Environmental Protection Agency, which is supervising the cleanup of his property. The Navy and Portsmouth Police were then contacted.
KEYWORDS: EXPLOSIVE WEAPON by CNB