Army Called in To Investigate Potential CWM Munitions Found

Ocean City, Maryland Construction workers at the Villa Nova Cottages in West Ocean City found two projectiles on the porch of a cottage slated to demolition. The workers called the police who responded with the Worcester County Fire Marshal's office and the Ocean City Bomb Squad. After confirming that the ordnance were military, Dover Air Force Base was contacted for technical support.

Dover dispatched a team from their EOD unit to investigate. The Air Force EOD team identified the two projectiles as possible live CWM filled munitions and therefore requested assistance from the U.S. Army 22nd EOD technical escort team based in Indian Head, Maryland. The Army responded and after a lengthy investigation involving X-Ray and other technologies, determined the munitions were not filled with CWM.

The munitions were then safely removed from the property for proper disposal. Authorities are unsure where the munitions came from or how long they were stored at the property. Although these munitions turned out to be inert, the exhaustive investigations were warranted as CWM munitions have been found in the past around the eastern shore area of Maryland and Delaware. One such incident occurred a few years earlier when a 75mm CWM mustard filled round severely injured an Air Force EOD technician who was responding to a call about munitions items found on a driveway which were mixed in with the clam shells used as driveway aggregate.