WWII-Era Bomb Found Near Tampa Airport

Florida is really the gift that keeps on giving. The latest tasty news tidbit from the Sunshine State is a 1,000-pound World War II-era bomb was discovered at the Brooksville Tampa Bay Regional Airport, prompting the whole facility to be evacuated for a short time on February 6.

Ryan Blaney On The Bond Between Driver And Spotter

Construction workers found the Mark 65 bomb while working at a future site of the Wilton Simpson Technical College campus in the northeast corner of the airport, according to Fox News. Since the bomb was “so rusted and decayed” there wasn’t any immediate way to tell if its ordnance was live or inert, Al Nienhuis, Hernando County Sheriff, told the media. Since it’s still – you know – a bomb at an airport, there were evacuations about a half mile in every direction and some road closures.

The Citrus County bomb squad responded to the scene and determined the hunk of old-ass metal was indeed inert, Fox News reported. A team from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa was also sent in to dispose of the bomb remnants.

Photo: Hernando County Sheriff’s Office

Now, if you’re wondering how a goddamn bomb ended up by an airport in Tampa, Florida, well, there’s a pretty easy explanation. It’s apparently the former site of Brooksville Army Airfield, where WWII bombers trained back in the day. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?

Here’s a little history of the Mark 65 bomb, from Fox News, people who know about military stuff:

The Mark 65 is a general-purpose bomb that the military used as far back as World War II to blast reinforced targets like dams and concrete or steel railroad bridges, according to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

”The bomb itself was an unguided gravity bomb,” Dr. Angie Zambek, an associate professor of history at UNC Wilmington, told FOX13 Tampa. “It was essentially just TNT in metal casing.”

This is weirdly the second time this week that I’ve written about a bomb being found where it wasn’t supposed to be in Florida. If I had a nickel for every time that happened this week, I’d have two nickels. That’s not a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.