Tama Sgt. Rodriguez, Tama Officer Ayala-Pagan, two men from the 375th Civil Engineer Squadron, two Iowa State Fire Marshall bomb techs, Manatt’s site manager Jeff Upah and Tama Police Chief Jason Bina take a picture with the mortar shell on Tuesday.

Monday was a day Tama Police Chief, Jason Bina, hopes was a once a career incident.

Lyle Behounek was helping a friend clean out a garage north of Laurel in Marshall County. Upon digging and cleaning Behounek found a 5 1/2 inch mortar shell weighing roughly 50-55 pounds. Not knowing if it was active, Behounek called the police department.

After the mortar shell was dropped off at the police station, Bina called the state fire marshall’s office. Two bomb techs, one from Cedar Rapids and one from Des Moines reported to Tama. An x-ray determined the device could be active so it was secured locally on Monday night. According to Bina the bomb techs indicated that depending on how much, if any, substance was loaded into the device, should it have gone off shrapnel could have reached for hundreds of feet.

On Tuesday members of the 375th Civil Engineer Squadron from St. Louis arrived to assist. They also x-rayed the device and once again it could not be 100% certain if the device was active.

With permission from Jeff Upah and management at Manatt’s, the group took the device to a sand pile where the device was detonated.

This is where things really got interesting for Chief Bina. The group assumed the device was from the Vietnam era. After the device was detonated a piece from the device was recovered. On the piece was an inscription which reads:

OM Ebersole

1915

To: CR Ebersole

Toledo, Iowa

Discovering the device was actually over 100 years old, Bina got permission to keep the piece with the inscription. He has since turned it over to Elizabeth Reece who works at the Tama County Historical Society. She is going to do some research. Bina will also be following up with the military to see if he can get the shell back.

“Hopefully it was once in a career incident. It was cool but just thinking if it were to go off the impact it could have. I’m glad it’s been safely taken care of,” said Bina.