ROCKETS!!!

[DigEmAll]

How'd you like to find these?? My dad dug these in 1977.? They were taken when he called the DOD and asked how to disarm them.? They said they would be glad to do it.? They showed up at the house a day or two later and they disarmed them... then took the rockets with them.? All we have are memories.... and a picture.? They were dug on Lookout Mountain, in Georgia, which is just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.? My guess is someone's Vietnam souvenir.

 

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[DigEmAll]

What? Nobody likes rockets?

 

[JAG]

I'm curious why they would take them after disarming them... just metal after being disarmed?

Jerry

 

[JakePhelps]

Cool rockets! or RPGs right? They took them after disarming them? I would report them for stealing...

 

[Kent in AL]

The confiscation of the rockets was just a diversion. They were really after those white shoes.

 

[DigEmAll]

The way the government looks at things... or at least looked at things then was that "what was once government property is always governmeny property." They didn't even really give a reason if I remember correctly from hearing the story a few years later. I was three at the time these were found.

Jake, these are just considered rockets as far as I know. They are from a M-9A1 Bazooka. They were used mostly against pillboxes and tanks during WWII and Korea. They were fazed out during the Vietnam years and replaced by the AT-4 (Anti-Tank-4) which was considered a RPG and the SMAW (Shoulder launched Multi-purpose Assault Weapon).

As for the shoes.... well, what can I say?


Here's a picture of the Bazooka and it's rocket.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=664

 

[DigEmAll]

Jake, on second thought, I guess these might fit the definition of an RPG.

RPG's are typically considered small, short-range, dumb rockets. They aren't guided by any guidance system and typically carry small charges. These are right on the very edge of what I would classify as an RPG. The only area that wouldn't fit that definition is that these carried a medium charge.

 

[rjnail]

nice find, thats one find i like not to dig up

 

[DigEmAll]

I would have just loved to have seen the look on his face when he realized that the object he had just whacked with a digger was a high explosive rocket!

Kind of reminds me of that Bugs Bunny cartoon where the gremlin was whacking the bomb and Bugs takes the hammer to give it a try. Anyone remember that one?

 

[Nana40]

Looks like you took a long stroll down memory lane today!

Really neat finds! Glad he wasn't like Bugs!

 

[silverhunter/dowser]

when i was 10 i was helping to hand out cups of water at a marathon that went right beside fort jackson here in columbia. After a while i got boared and started playing alog side the road and found an old rusty disarmed training grenade and they still took that.? And yes I do remember that cartoon.HH

 

[Michigan Badger]

I live not far from a military bombing test site that's been used since WWI. In the summer it often sounds like a 4th of July celebration off in the distance.

A few years back the military had a special project going here code named "Chicken Little." It had to do with Jets mounted with powerful laser guns. I tried to get them to explain the laser thing but they wouldn't give me anything more except to say it was really wild and I wouldn't believe it if I heard it.

They brought in tanks made by all other countries. Sorry, that's all I could get out of the military.

Our military has things that would shock us if we knew.

Nice find. Sorry you couldn't keep them.

 

[JakePhelps]

I said it looked like an RPG because it has the shape of one. The government took a dummy nade from you? I bought one of those once at an army navy store once...use it as a paper weight Governments outa control...

 

[DigEmAll]

Jake, have you seen the ones with the tag hanging from the pin that are used in offices? The tag has the number "1" on it and a little sign below it that says "Please, Take a number." I thought those were pretty funny.

 

[EDDE]

kent beat me to the shoes...DOH!i have an uncle that had a couple of crates that were dated to early 40s 42 i think (was a kid exploring the barn on his farm,he used them for nesting his chickens) they were BAR boxs.ugh, the old days wish they were still here.....

 

[DigEmAll]

If only they had the BAR's in 'em!!!!!! Boy, would that ever make my day!

 

[EDDE]

ditto!!!!