ASSATEAGUE - A World War II ordnance fragment was found in the sands of Assateague National Park Sunday afternoon.
A controlled demolition occurred today in Assateague National Park around 3:30pm Sunday. The demolition took place to remove a fragment of an old World War II ordnance .
Part of the beach was closed off for a few hours as the controlled demolition took place.
The Navy used Assateague for missile testing from 1945 to the early 1950s, and Park Superintendent Hugh Hawthorne explained that remnants of that history are reemerging.
“When the Navy left in the early 50s, they picked up most of the scraps or fragments of rockets and bombs and buried them in two big pits. Now, this is a barrier island that moves naturally, and one of those pits is now offshore the north beach area,” Hawthorne said.
After a major nor'easter in 2022, these pits have been slowly dispersing fragments. The park has already found two this summer and has a system in place for handling such discoveries, involving the local fire marshal and the Dover Bomb Squad. Hawthorne advises visitors to report any findings and avoid touching them.
“It’s not a high danger – it’s 99% that they aren’t dangerous at all, but 99% is not 100%. When we deal with unexploded ordnance, we have to be 100% sure before we treat it as something other than a UXO,” Hawthorne emphasized.
