ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603180066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WATERFORD
Brian Rickert's plans for show-and-tell could have blown up in his face.
The 12-year-old found an 8-inch hunk of iron beside a recently fallen oak tree and brought it to his parents last week.
``Look, Dad, look what I found,'' he said. ``What is it?''
A military souvenir that someone had discarded, thought Mark Rickert, and he and his son took it back outside. But when Brian asked to take the 12-pound shell to class for show-and-tell, Rickert became concerned enough to call the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.
The next day, an explosion rocked Waterford. The boy had found a live Civil War artillery shell.
``It was loud like a big boom and very startling,'' resident Janey Walker said Friday.
At least it was a planned boom, courtesy of the Army 57th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Co. at Fort Belvoir, which was called by Loudoun officials who wanted nothing to do with the piece of history.
``They felt it was dangerous and the safest thing was to detonate it in place,'' said Rebecca Wriggle, spokeswoman for Fort Belvoir.
``We were in a house half a mile down the road, and the walls shook,'' Mark Rickert said. Added mother Chris Rickert: ``The thought of your child handling any kind of explosive is frightening. We weren't that concerned about it at the time, but looking back...''
The explosive, known as a Parrott shell, was used by Union and Confederate forces and is a common collector's item among Civil War buffs, who often drain the gunpowder.
``You can handle those shells because the fuse has probably rotted out,'' said Bob Buttafuso, of the Northern Virginia Relic Hunters Association. ``It might be a hazard if you threw it on a fire. But that's about it.''
Mike Taylor, a Loudoun County assistant fire marshal, disagreed, calling the Rickerts ``extremely, extremely lucky.''
``When it was launched, it released the components of the fuse, so the next time it's moved it could blow up,'' he said.
The sheriff's department plans to sweep the family's property with metal detectors to search for any other stray shells. And although he's still without an item to show, Brian has plenty to talk about in class.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB