AT-4 missile found in bad Dasses house in Savannah

1145Z WED 11AUG04. Savannah NOW

An AT-4 anti-tank missile was found under the Savannah home of two men recently jailed on federal firearms charges.

It's a little disconcerting, in these terrorist times, to keep hearing of weapons which can penetrate many inches of steel to do major damage (or expended ones, which could be a test of the ability to get a live one where the bad guys plan to use them) popping up in all the wrong places.

If you have the time and interest, ACE gets wound up (probably due to too much coffee) in the long extension.

Not the first such incident

Remember, ACE reported an expended AT-4 launcher was found near the tracts of Atlanta's rapid transit system (MARTA) earlier in the year. If authorities are still trying to figure that out, we're not hearing about it. Their official statement was it was already expended, and thus nothing to worry about.

SURELY that was said just to assuage the fears of the populace. There's no good reason for such a weapon (expended or not) being inside the fenced property of a public transportation system, and lots of bad ones.

Neighborhood evacuated for two hours

The Savannah incident also prompted an evacuation of nearby homes after police found another explosive in the truck's trash compartment as well as 20 mm bullets used in mounted military machine guns. (Think that means they had some 20mm bullets, but not the weapons which fired them, but it's an ambiguous statement. The writer probably studied journalism at UGA, so give him/her a break! ACE certainly cannot judge the writing of others.)

Open bases are a problem

The Dasses (Broderick and his son Brandon), who remain in federal custody, were arrested by game wardens July 17 after they were caught wandering in an aerial gunnery range used by helicopters at Fort Stewart.

That's probably where they "found" the AT-4. We used to run into unexploded missiles on remote ranges at Ft. Bragg, years ago. We'd report them to EOD, or if we happened to have some explosives on hand, just blow them in place, using 1/4 lb. of TNT and a claymore detonator, without ever touching them. About a year after leaving the 307th Engr. Bn., I read of some 307th troops taking a "souvenir" rocket (fired from a jet -- sometimes they've just slide across the sandy soil and not explode) back to the barracks, where three were killed and several injured when one tried to knock off the nosecone while sitting on the steps. Not smart at all! I suspect their officers had warned them not to touch them, as we did our troops.

It gets much worse! Their dog harassed a tortoise!

The charges included illegally [so much for the effectiveness of anti-gun laws] possessing automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as harassing an endangered gopher tortoise with a Rottweiler, said Steve Hart, spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield. The men are also suspects in suspects in a Dumpster explosion [which almost destroyed a Savannah garbage truck] about a block from the house. A search of the home last month yielded 10 automatic weapons, some with altered serial numbers.

What incriminating evidence or illegal items were they trying to destroy in that dumpster? If it was just incriminating documents, they should just buy a double-direction paper shredder at Office Depot, then burn the shreddings (in a legal way) for safe measure.

If you ask ACE:

Just a wild guess, but these Dasses (if their last name didn't have a D it would be very appropo) don't seem like solid citizens of the lovely, peaceful city of Savannah. People like this give gun collectors a bad name among the "leftosi" (making up a word). Hope they're not members of the NRA. These are the types the authorities should concentrate on, not the 99.4% who would never use a firearm to hurt anyone other than those intent of hurting defenseless, unarmed, untrained (in self-defense) anti-gun Americans who are completely dependent upon authorities for the protection of themselves, their families, and their property. (Anyone who reads the paper knows how well that works.) Anti-gun laws are completely ineffective against them, because they are outlaws who don't obey laws. (Duh!). Blowing up a dumpster is just childish, but endangering a gopher tortoise is going too far! A Rottweiller can't really hurt a tortoise, which has excellent defensive systems, but it can impede its progress and annoy the heck out of it. The real threat to the gopher tortoise is the loss of its natural habitat, caused by developers.

Probably not terrorists

But, in defense of the Dasses, I'm guessing that, while they are FAR from model citizens, they are actually very patriotic and would be good neighbors to have should radical Islamic terrorists invade your neighborhood. Just don't look at them the wrong way, or they might blow up your mailbox! [Something some ACE acquaintances used to do for fun with M-80 firecrackers (against the grouchiest neighbor) before potentially distructive fireworks were outlawed and the acquaintances matured.]

Bad Dasses