Posted on 04/29/2008 12:12:18 PM PDT by No2much3
BURLINGTON COUNTY, N.J. - In South Jersey, the discovery of unexploded artillery shells from World War II has stalled plans to develop a new expo center. The sheer number of artillery shells staggered the mayor. It was found at the now closed Palmyra Drive-In Theater on Route 73.
"We were hoping, hoping to only find one or two or three maybe. We're now up to nearly 200, or 181 as reported to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, but there's since been another 20," Palmyra Mayor John Gural, Jr. said.
The Army was anxious to develop new anti-tank rounds for the military during World War II. So the secret test site was what later became the Palmyra Drive-In Theater.
The artillery shells were developed over at the Frankford Arsenal. And while some were tested on the site of what was to be the drive-in, other shells got there the old fashion way -- the Army actually fired them from Philadelphia, across the river, into Palmyra.
When the war ended, the Army said the site was cleaned up. The land returned to civilian use, which in this case became a drive-in, complete with concession stands.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Army veracity all begins with the recruiters.
Yeah, just like that site in Orlando where there's now a subdivision and a school. They're still finding live ammo.
Check out the video of the mayor staggering across the parking lot.
There were even problem back then. Remember the scene from “Tora Tora Tora” where Gen Short was informed the Army was unable to get permission to install radar on a mountaintop in Hawaii, because of the Parks Dept and the Wildlife Preservation Society???
Well I can remember when there were some great explosions in the back of a drive-in theater.
Damn. I went to that dirve-in in my younger days. I thought I was the cause of the fireworks. :^(
Think I remember tossing a few artillery shells myself.
‘drive-in’ not dirve-in
We has a similiar site in DC where they dug up mustard gas munitions from WWI
And in all those years of people driving cars over them, bouncing cars over them, and walking to those concession stands and bathrooms over them, how many went off?
Me too. But I guess thoses were the duds they were referring to.
Maybe they were all inert training rounds. The stupid media would'nt know the difference.
LOL! Ouch!
Are you sure you don’t mean the in the back seat at a drive-in theater? :o
Not always the back seat.
You know just last month a errant artillery shell being tested at Picatinny Arsenal in North Jersey veered off course and landed in a home over a mile from the launch site.
The Army still tests fires live experimental rounds in NJ on a regular basis.
The Picatinny Arsenal had a HUGE explosion way back (WWII I suppose or before) that scattered live shells over a huge area. They put a fence around it all and declared it off-limits - problem solved! I always wondered about what trophy deer might be found back in there!?
when they began vacuuming sand up off shore and then pumping it onto Sea Bright they redefined the concept of sea shells
the army had been firing shells out into the ocean for years just where they began to gather sand and when they pumped the sand from onto the shore hundreds of shells were planed on the beach
the project was delayed and some very nervous people with metal detectors spent a couple of months planting little flags on the new sand then they were supposedly all dug up. The shells likely came from the batteries out on Sandy Hook which have been there since the revolutionary war
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