Posted on 01/05/2008 1:14:49 PM PST by stainlessbanner
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Officials said they have unearthed more than 400 pounds of World War II-era bombs and munitions from the grounds around Odyssey Middle School in Boynton Beach over the holiday break.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to detonate them Saturday, and warned residents they would be hearing several large blasts.
Among the items found since Dec. 27 were about 50 bombs, several rockets, a rocket booster and a cannon. sponsor
Part of the school grounds was used by the Army in the 1940s to train bombardiers for combat. The Army Corps announced its clean-up of the area during the summer.
I wonder how many of those my brother dropped during his bombardier training in Florida prior to his deployment to England in1944. I’ll have to ask him tomorrow if he trained there...
Here is a Mapquest map that shows the location of the school and proximity to OIA.
You can see the school itself is about at the edge of the developments, though more are being built to the east of it. If you zoom out a little bit you can see OIA just to the Southwest of the school. The original runways built many years ago are just to the west of OIA. My understanding is that they are two miles long and were constructed to handle the B52s.
Not many people know it but there is a B52 that sits in front of OIA. It's part of a memorial park that sits out front of the airport but the politicians have it hidden so well from the highways and entrances to the airport that hardly anyone knows it's there. There aren't even any signs pointing the way to it.
Last I heard that some of the developers were going to pay to have their customer's lots/homes checked for explosives. Haven't heard if they've found any yet.
Wow! Please do! Central Florida was home to at least four or more Army and Navy bases/training areas during WWII. Not long ago they uncovered a P51 Mustang at the bottom of a shallow lake just west of the city. It was still in good shape. The Ocala National Forest to the north of Orlando is still used as a bombing range. As a matter of fact it is called the Pinecastle Bombing Range!
Thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I had always assumed they did that out near Vegas somewhere.
That's good news that we have bigger caches than you, Allegra ;) So far, the majority of the pics I've see appeared to be small stuff like mortar rounds, but they have found some of the bigger stuff. Of course, the news calls everything a "bomb" so you really don't know what's being found unless you catch a pic.
And, yes, the school is still open for business everyday.
They thought the munitions were confined to areas outside the school grounds (which is now surrounded by a fence) but on the news today I saw a pic of the school's track where it had a fews holes dug into it. Who knows what they'll do now.
The above is in re: to your post. Still working on my first cup of coffee.
“Orlando International Airport was an old Air Force training base, then became an operational bombing base called McCoy Airfield, hence the Orlando International Airport code of MCO - if anyone ever wondered.”
I went to Navy bootcamp in Orlando in 68’. Part of the base still had old Air Force barracks which I lived in after I graduated. We were on the flight path of McCoy and when the B-52’s would scramble at night the barracks would vibrate so badly my bunk would start shaking. Scared the living crap out of me the first time it happened. Used to see U-2’s leaving out of there too.
The developers should have done a title search and looked for hazzards like this.
IIRC it hasn’t been too many years ago it was McCoy AFB.
Civilian planes used part of the field.
So the Air Force moved out?
Keep in mind that many of these areas were sparsely populated at the time. Boynton only had a few hundred people in the 1950s (and probably less in the 1940s).
Here in Michigan we call them things "sand traps".......
Part of the base was transferred to the Navy and became part of Naval Training Center Orlando, but that part was returned to the city in '99 when NTCO closed.
I remember the draw down, I was part of it. In 1974, I was on active duty with the USAF, but at Tinker. That was a whole lifetime ago. My older daughter, who just had her 2nd and 3rd babies (identical twins) was born in 1974. In fact I'm at her house doing "Grandpa's Baby Duty" as I post... and I think I hear one of the babies going off now.... gotta run.
In much of FL, bomb craters are more likely to be water hazards.
Very interesting----our crew trained at McDill Field at Tampa Bay. The old saying was a plane a day in Tampa Bay. We practiced with 2 types of bombs, both 100 #. The lite blue one was sand filled with a 10 # black powder charge-- the other one was black--- water filled with the same charge. Back to bombing , you had to make co- ordinated turn. This is to long, so will call you.
Wow - interesting stuff tubebender
Bunker Hill ??
lol
You will have to give us a full update, whenever you get it.
that’s not mine.
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