Travis EOD team removes explosive found in Fairfield

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Nicole Leidholm
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  A live grenade was found inside a vehicle April 29 at the Pick-N-Pull, a vehicle salvage and scrap metal yard, on Air Base Parkway in Fairfield, California, approximately one mile outside Travis Air Force Base.

Local law enforcement responded to the scene and confirmed the device was a live grenade. Solano County Sheriff's Deputies then requested support from the Travis explosive ordnance disposal team.

"An employee was cleaning out a car that the Pick-N-Pull had just purchased from an auction when the employee found the grenade in a safety vest in the trunk of the vehicle," said Tech. Sgt. Mark Walker, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron EOD flight operations section chief and team lead during the incident.

Walker said the team usually responds to one unexploded ordinance call a week in the local area.

"Only military EOD can respond to military munitions," Walker said. "The (Department of Defense) owns the munitions cradle to grave, so we are the responding authority."

After the Travis EOD team arrived on scene, Walker and his Airmen secured the munition and brought it back to Travis to destroy.

Staff Sgt. David Adkins, 60th CES EOD technician, who also responded to the scene, served as safety backup and standby if anything were to happen.

"These are pretty typical calls we get stateside," Adkins said. "We cover a lot of the coastline that used to be bombing ranges."

WWII, Vietnam and Korean veterans would bring old grenades and WWI drop-style bombs home with them and their families would find them later, Adkins said.

The area of responsibility for Travis EOD covers 33,000 square miles, from Point Reyes to Monterey, California.

"We cover a good 20 percent of California," Adkins said, "We have been called out to the Presidio in San Francisco for about 20 cannon balls. Most of our calls, however, are in Fairfield and the surrounding Bay Area."