2 military rounds worry Benton unit

Twice Tuesday - within a four-hour span - the Benton Police Department encountered two potentially explosive devices at two homes just 2 miles apart.

Both times, the Little Rock Air Force Base’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team went out to inspect what appeared to be military rounds.

One proved to be a dummy 60 mm mortar round used for training. The other, however, was a live military 75 mm howitzer projectile from 1945.

“It was fused, active,” Benton police spokesman Lt. Kevin Russell said. He added wryly: “I’m glad nobody dropped it.”

Police received the first call at 1:20 p.m. A man reported finding what looked to be mortar shell under his carport. When officers arrived at the Sevier Street residence, they found a 60 mm mortar round, Russell said.

The homeowner didn’t seem to be alarmed, Russell said.

“He thought maybe it had been sitting there for several years.”

Officers set up a perimeter and contacted the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, which declared the device an inert training round.

At 5 p.m., police received a second call about a military device at a home on Sharron Road.

Rex Carson told officers he had found the M64 howitzer projectile a few weeks ago while going through items in his deceased father’s home.

Carson had put the artillery round in a woodpile, intending to call police. But then he forgot, Russell said.

“Then he happened to be back over there, saw it, and said, ‘Oh yeah, I need to call.’”

Once again, police set up a perimeter. Once again, the explosives team was dispatched from the air base.

“I’m sure everyone was probably feeling deja vu at that point,” Russell said.

One of those present was Detective Brett Carpenter, who serves in the Army Reserve and, after a stint in Iraq, has some background knowledge of explosive devices.

While the mortar round at the first scene had appeared at first glance to be harmless, this one did not evoke a similarly calm reaction from those called to the second house, Carpenter said. He said he took one look and declared, “That looks like a live round.”

“It had the potential to have one of four fillers,” Carpenter said, listing each possibility: smoke, used for signaling; white phosphorus; mustardgas; or high explosive.

“The problem is, the round was so old that the origin markings were faded to where you couldn’t serialize them,” he added.

So the Little Rock Fire Department’s bomb squad, which has a containment vehicle, took the projectile to the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

At first, Carson didn’t seem to be that concerned about the projectile, Carpenter said.

“I think more than anything that it’s one of those deals where it’s been there forever and nobody ever gave much thought to potentially how dangerous it was. It startled him. It was kind of an ‘oh, crap’ moment.”

Carson wasn’t reached for comment Wednesday.