Posted on 05/18/2004 7:32:27 PM PDT by mhking
FBI officials said it posed no threat, but the discovery of a rocket launcher near MARTA train tracks in southwest Atlanta left commuters rattled Tuesday.
Johnny Carter, 41, and Cecil Duck, 42, friends and co-workers who were going home from the Hamilton E. Holmes station about 4:30 p.m. had been worried about Carter's wife. She would have been at the station about the time the rocket launcher was found, about 2 p.m.
"I was terrified. I knew we were safe, but she might be at the station," Duck said.
"The thought of her coming off the [MARTA] bus onto something like that and I can't get to her . . .," said Carter, not finishing his sentence.
MARTA employees who walk the tracks several times each day found the rocket launcher near the Holmes station, at the end of the west line, according to MARTA spokeswoman Kimberly Willis Green.
The station was allowed to remain open after officials determined that the device didn't pose a threat to the public.
Steve Lazarus, a spokesman for the FBI in Atlanta, said a "shell or tube" of an AT4 anti-tank rocket launcher was found with the sights broken off of it, which is what soldiers are taught to do after its single use, he said.
Lazarus said the device couldn't be fired because of its condition — it looked to have been sitting "out in weather for quite some time" — and because there was no ordnance in it.
"There's no threat associated with it," he said. "It's designed to be fired once and thrown away."
He said it's not uncommon for such shells to end up at gun shows and be sold to the public. They are legal to sell and possess, he said.
Just damn.
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Atlanta did seem like a rather rough town.
Greta and FNC was playing this up as if it were worthy of a serious Fox News Alert. A military surplus place in Oklahoma City used to sell used LAW tubes. It was empty and nothing had exploded nearby, it's safe to say it's not an 'incident'.
He said it's not uncommon for such shells to end up at gun shows and be sold to the public. They are legal to sell and possess, he said.
So in other words, some public transportation workers found some trash in a train station. This is news?
Hardee har!
Actually, the place they found this was less than a quarter mile from Interstate 20, plus about three miles from Charlie Brown Airport.
Charlie Brown is a commuter field, so I doubt that would be any kind of target, but MARTA or I-20? Different animal all together.
It certainly makes me nervous; my wife and I both travel that stretch every day.
When we were kids, we used surplus tubes to drop in an M80 then a golf ball or a super ball.
It does look cool.
Never seen a Cecil Duck. Must be a Southern thing. Mostly Mallards 'round this way.
"I was terrified. I knew we were safe, but she might be at the station," Duck said.
What a bunch of whinny crybaby puke cowards. Maybe this country deserves to go down the tubes if these people are any indication of the quality of character that exists there.
No Mergansers?
just bracket the head-car and pull the trigger and you almost can't miss at least one of the trailing commuter cars.
Certain high level state politicians use Charlie Brown regularly.
It's very low key.
As an aside, when I was 10, Elvis Presley's private jet, the Lisa Marie came to Charlie Brown, and I got to walk through it.
Someone pointed out that the freight tracks adjacent to the MARTA tracks there (I think that's the Norfolk Southern mainline, but don't quote me) are used by military trains going into and out of Ft. Benning.
Six Flags.
Large Petroleum storage facility. Get one of those large tanks to go off, and we'll forget all about Sherman.
RR switch yard.
Charlie Brown airport. There are plenty of woods surrounding the runways where someone could hide with one of these or an RPG, and take a shot of a VIP plane as it sat waiting for takeoff.
Richard B. Russell Federal building.
Fort Macpherson.
Turner field.
Georgia Power Plant.
There are probably several I'm forgetting, but all of these are a few minutes drive from H.E. Holmes Marta station.
IIRC..You are right about the RR tracks that follow the Marta tracks.
You can ahem "bracket" a train, the Peach Tree Plaza or the broad side of a barn til you're blue in the face. If the weapon has already been fired then it is a non-starter [much like this story was].
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