Kadena warhead removal prompts evacuation

[unhappycamper]

he warheard from a 5-inch High Velocity Aircraft Rocket discovered in August by a Navy construction crew near Kadena Air Base Gate 4 will be removed and destroyed Sunday (Oct. 19cq) by the 18th Wing's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight.


Kadena warhead removal prompts evacuation
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, October 15, 2008

KADENA TOWN, Okinawa — About 100 residents in the Mizugama neighborhood alongside Highway 58 will have to temporarily evacuate their homes Sunday for the removal of an unexploded warhead found nearby on Kadena Air Base.

The warhead was discovered in August by a Navy crew during the construction of a concrete gazebo near Gate 4, according to Air Force and Navy officials.

The warhead is an American-made, 5-inch High Velocity Aircraft Rocket left over from World War II, the 18th Wing said in a release.

About 200,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Okinawa between the 1944 air raids in Naha by Allied forces and the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, said Masaru Kaneko, a spokesman for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force in Naha.

The warhead will be removed by the 18th Wing’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight and taken to the air base’s munitions storage to be destroyed, said wing spokesman Maj. John Hutcheson.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58139