Wyoming Vets Say Riverton Grenades For Training — Still Nothing To Play Around With

Reflecting on the sight of four hand grenades found by a teen Wednesday in Riverton, which were reported by the Riverton Police Department as being live, some military veterans in Wyoming said they could be “live” in a diminished sense — but they look like training grenades.

A 15-year-old boy found the grenades by the river on Riverton’s south end and brought them to his grandmother’s house, but warned his mother that they might not be safe to go into the house.

The RPD called in other agencies, which led to a response by the Natrona County bomb squad.

A grenade in the Riverton Police Department’s photograph from the scene bears an aquamarine-blue colored handle, or “spoon,” which multiple former military members from Wyoming told Cowboy State Daily signifies a training device.

But the discovery is still cause for caution, and it’s a good thing the teen’s mother called police, some added.  

“Training is always blue,” Carlos Skinner of Riverton told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

A deadly grenade poised to blast fragments everywhere would be olive drab green, he added.

Skinner was an airborne ranger for about 15 years in the Second Ranger Battalion out of Fort Lewis, Washington, he said. 

Training grenades may still explode, but with a minor “pop,” like a firecracker he said.

Still, Though

It’s still good the boy’s mother Ashley Harding called police, former U.S. Army armorer Joey Correnti told Cowboy State Daily.

Correnti said he used to train people on explosives, including hand grenades.

The grenades found in Riverton look like the antiquated “pineapple” type, he said. Correnti estimated they’re from at least before the 1970s; and Skinner associated them with World War II.

“I was in the Army 21 years I still wouldn’t pick those up,” said Correnti. “You come across anything (like this) and the best thing is to just remember where it is, mark it, have someone keep an eye on it.”

He described the process of “cordoning” the area, then calling the police to dispose of the devices.

“The only thing you know is that you don’t know what that is, and it’s definitely old,” he said.

Correnti said he’s glad the Riverton situation ended as calmly as it did. But looking at the rusted box, he added, “the kid might want to get a tetanus shot.”

Got One Myself

John Livingston, who lives in California and has property in Wyoming, said he was in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 1996, and has used blue-handled grenades in training. He also bought one at a surplus store when he was 18 and has owned it since.  

His is empty: the bottom is cut off, said Livingston.

“Blue (color-coding) across all the services indicates training device,” said Livingston.

Some training devices may have a diminished explosion, however, and “you don’t want to be holding it when it goes off” though it’s not fully explosive or fatal, he added.

That’s why the Riverton Police Department’s statement that the devices were “live” may not be inaccurate, though the grenades are likely training devices, he noted.

RPD Capt. Wes Romero told Cowboy State Daily that the Natrona County personnel who responded Wednesday told officers to treat the grenades as live.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.