Korean War-Era Mortar Shells Blown Up After Being Found In Huntington County
HUNTINGTON — Kris Geyer often walks along Clear Creek admiring the sights and sounds of nature. But what he found this time was definitely a surprise.
“We’ve found things down there before but nothing like this,” he said. Geyer found what he thought was maybe some type of military explosive.
He then decided to take it to the sheriff’s office to find out.
“I didn’t take it inside the sheriff’s office, I just left it in my truck and told them I had what I thought was a live round in my truck and I don’t know if they really believed me at first,” Geyer said.
Turns out, Geyer found an actual military mortar. The Fort Wayne Bomb Squad was called in. Then the Air Force. To everyone’s surprise, 11 mortars in total were found in the creek.
“Right now they’re working with the Air Force bomb unit. They’re trying to identify exactly where they came from and what era. Roughly they think it’s around 1950s Korean War area,” Chief Deputy Major Christian Newton said.
How it got there, no one knows.
“We thought maybe somebody was just cleaning out grandpa’s garage and you know said what are these things let’s get rid of them,” Geyer said,
The air force treated the explosives as if they were live and set them all off. Creating quite the commotion for the small county.
“It’s the first time that I’ve ever had something like this–to find 11 artillery shells located in a creek. It’s not the norm for Huntington County,” Newton said.
Now the Air Force will study the pieces and find out where the mortars came from.
Source: WANE