Can't be much HE in a shell that small! You'd think these new cub reporters and their editors would be embarrassed by their innumeracy!
Posted on 02/08/2008 5:06:48 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
New technology met ancient weaponry in Palo Alto this week when local park rangers used cell phone images and Wikipedia to identify an unexploded artillery shell discovered Wednesday in Foothills Park. The artillery shell is the latest in a long line of mysterious hazards that have periodically surfaced at Foothills Park since its official opening in 1965, offering another glimpse into its secretive history.
Residents were alerted to the most recent episode Wednesday afternoon, when the city sent out a community notice warning that an unexploded World War I artillery shell had been discovered on the 3200 block of Alexis Drive and might produce a loud noise when detonated. Around midnight, a group of law enforcement officers from the Palo Alto Police Department and the Santa Clara County Bomb Squad, along with officials from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, safely detonated the weapon, Palo Alto police Sgt. Sandra Brown said Thursday.
Lester Hodgins, supervising ranger of the city's open space division, said two rangers discovered the shell while walking the fence line of a new property on Alexis Drive. "It was lying right there next to the deer trail," Hodgins said.
The two rangers quickly snapped a cell phone picture of the artillery and sent the image to Hodgins, who searched the online encyclopedia Wikipedia from his office to find a match. "The size and shape very much match a 0.75 mm possibly fragmentation shell," he said.
Hodgins said this was the first time rangers had discovered an unexploded ordnance in the park, but artillery parts, grape shot and rubber plugs for guns previously have been unearthed.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Can't be much HE in a shell that small! You'd think these new cub reporters and their editors would be embarrassed by their innumeracy!
Foothills Park? I once found a full, unopened, 16 oz. glass Coca Cola bottle buried under an oak tree up there.
That was in 1981, and I still have it. It was probably over 20 years in the ground and now over 20 more above ground.
I knew it had to have been buried for a long time, since it had tree roots growing around it.
I wish they still sold coke in 16 oz glass.
I'm sure they meant 75mm.
The French 75mm was used by U.S. Forces in WWI.
Give the hippies some hammers and let them play with it...
True, but you must still be very careful. When they go off they can cause casualties within a radius of about 9/16 of an inch!
Me, too. I also liked the 32 oz. glass on occasion.
The two rangers in question:
perhaps it was squirrel artillery.
Yep, that’s them! LOL
75 mm or 0.75mm, what’s the difference? /end sarcasm
Believe it or not, this is the second time I have run across this very error and the first time was committed by no one less than Stephen Ambrose. In the first edition of ‘Citizen Soldiers’, he stated that the Panther tank had an 88mm cannon when it actually had a 75mm cannon. In the next edition, he added an afterword with some corrections that included stating that the Panther, in fact, had a .75mm gun!
Yep - sounds like this was reported by a pro-gun control media person!
BTW, thanks for the article. It’s always fascinating uncovering historical information on familiar places. It definitely gives me a new perspective on Foothill Park-though I won’t be treasure hunting, thanks!
The full story was very interesting, wasn’t it? (the bone-headed “0.75 mm” notwithstanding). I had no idea that the area up around the park was used for training and artillery practice, that there were 600 buildings in the camp in WW I, and the area around Stanford was used for practice. I’m surprised that more shells haven’t been unearthed around here.
I agree, that’s fascinating! A whole miniature Fort Ord once existed here and I grew up not knowing it. Unless that area becomes developed, I doubt we will hear much about old ordnance, though the whole place is probably loaded.
This would have been the third, but he got captured and beheaded.
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