Helping out Ammo

[Chuck462]

So, last year while I was in QA, I drew the night before some holiday break, mid-shift at Hurlburt Field. No-one was at work, just few pro-supers for some sheet metal guys working an issue. The flightline was a ghost town.

Since we couldn't close up shop really, just in case, I ran to Walmart for some items to eat, and left my #2 in the office for 45 minutes. Nothing could happen right??

As I drive out the gate, I see a hummer drive in, with a placarded trailer to the front gate...I thought that was rather odd. Oh well, I press on to Walmart, and on the way back, I get a call on the phone saying "we need you back"..WTF could have gone down?

Mike-2 (EMS Pro-super) said that someone reported a aircraft bomb in their neighbor's garage and the sheriff came out and found a live Mk-82. He called in to Hurlburt and requested EOD support and they went out and collected it. Now, they have a live 82, and the only place to store it was Hurlburt's bomb dump and because everyone was shut down, we had to wait for the stand by Munitions Controller to be recalled back in.

What a pain in the ass it is to get into the bomb dump when it is completed shut down for a long weekend. The safe with the storage keys was a pain in the ass to open, took about 45 minutes. Then we had to call in a storage guy who knew what location to use for storing the bomb. Oh, and BTW, we had a late tropical storm come through that weekend so everything is packed up nice and tight in any available shelter, including the forklift that was planned on moving the bomb. Surrounded by 10 other vehicles, that noone knew where the keys were readily.

So, between us all (Me, Pave-low QA inspector, EMS Pro-sup, 2 EOD guys, and 1 Ammo) we manhandled the bomb off the trailer, onto a pallet jack and placed it nice and need in a shelter.

Between you and me, I'd rather just place them on Aircraft. There's too much hassle to the bomb dumps.

[Psycho]

Outstanding avatar! You never elaborated on the 500lb MK82 in the guys garage. I can only assume this was an Ammo troop. It sure would be nice to know how the hell he got it to the house any why he would want one. Today this would have been considered an act of terrorism.

Thanks for the story. Too funny!

[Chuck462]

How he got it was between him and the sheriff. He wasn't an ammo troop for sure. I watched the newspapers for weeks afterwards and nothing was ever published about it. I only got the story from the EOD guys, who talked with the sheriff. The dude had three stories as to how he got it:

1. He found it on the Eglin range. Hauled it away himself.
2. His uncle gave it to him.
3. He got it at a recycling/garbage center of some sort.

The damn thing was rusted to hell, but I swear I saw a residual yellow ring around the nose. There was a fuse well in the front, and the tail cone was ripped off, but I never really looked for a tail fuse assembly.