A Wendover rock hound saw his treasure explode this week in a controlled detonation courtesy of the United States Air force.
Late last week Craig Alvord happened upon a metal object that looked like a World War II era bomb. Wendover was a training base for the Air Force and near the end of the war was a ultra secret base of the 509th squadron. The 509th under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki thus ending the war.
However what Alford found was a dud according to the Air Force team sent to examine it.
When the USAF techs determined it was a training round with no explosives in it they blew it up anyway, taking the better safe than sorry philosophy.
“If we had had a high explosive contribution, the blast would have been much larger than it was. What we saw in reality was just the C4 that we put on it to access it,” said Tech Sgt. Wesley Kory with the 775th explosive ordnance disposal unit to KSL.
Despite several clean up attempts the Wendover bombing range is littered with old ordinance some of which still contains very old and very unstable explosives. If discovered authorities caution make no effort to remove it or open it. Instead mark the location and immediately inform the police.
