On July 2, 1947, J. Walter Jones and his sons, Orval and Edwin and
an employee, John McCord, went to work at their Boat Shop.
The morning started out, just like any other, but by the end of the day,
they were celebrities.
Two non-explosive ballast bombs dropped from a Navy Department plane,
operated by Captain H. W. Koepka, a test pilot in charge, from the Glenn L. Martin airplane manufacturing
plant, at MIddle River, Maryland.
The bombs were dummies filled with water and sand and broke loose accidentally.
One bomb landed in the boat shop and the other one narrowly missed a pig pen, creating two huge
craters in the Jones' back yard.
"I was dressing lumber at the time of the bombing", said Orval Jones.
"I turned from the planer and saw the roof coming up so I tried to start running.
But, I felt my insides coming out (the feeling one gets when theres a lack of oxygen in the air..when
a bomb explodes, explained Jones)...so I hit the ground".
No one was killed, but all four men in the shop, received minor injuries including
concussions.
Newspaper headlines and radio announcers, nationwide, screamed "BOMBS BREAK LOOSE FROM NAVY PLANE".
Located a stones throw away from the house, the craters ,the bombs created,
measured about five feet deep and eight feet wide.
Orval Jones stated, after it was all over, "I spent four-and-a-half years in the service, during
World War II , and didnt get a scratch, and I come home and nearly get killed in my own back yard".
Later, Martin officials issued a statement which read:
"ON WEDNESDAY, TWO BALLAST BOMBS,LOADED WITH SAND AND WATER AND WEIGHING APPROXIMATELY 1,000
POUNDS EACH, WERE LOST, IN ONE OF A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTAL FLIGHTS BEING MADE BY THE MARTIN COMPANY DURING THE TESTING OF
A LARGE TWIN-ENGINE
AMPHIBIAN FOR THE NAVY. ( A PBM-5-A, THE WORLDS LARGEST AMPHIBIAN PLANE).
THE PLANE WAS BEING FLOWN AT AN ALTITUDE OF 9,500 FEET AT THE TIME THE BOMBS BROKE LOOSE AND
THE CREW BELIEVED THE BOMBS HAD FALLEN INTO THE CHESAPEAKE BAY, OVER WHICH THEY WERE OPERATING, NEAR THE LOWER
POINT OF KENT ISLAND.
WITTMAN IS APPROXIMATELY 4 1/2 AIR MILES FROM THE LOWER POINT OF KENT ISLAND".
Although the plane was built for the Navy Department,and had undergone tests at Patuxent Air
Station, a Navy spokesman, in Washington, denied that it was a Navy craft.
"No investigation is being made by the Navy" the spokesman said.
