Police say corpsman made bombs at his home
By: William H. McMichael Staff Writer NavyTimes.Com
A Virginia-based Navy corpsman was arrested Dec. 31 and charged with manufacturing and possessing an explosive device after police and fire marshals said they found bomb-making materials in his home.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (EXW) Joseph Robert Yengel, 37, of Warwick, N.Y., is being held without bond at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.
According to James City District Fire Chief Robert Ryalls, James City County Police and the Fire Marshal’s Office responded to a domestic assault complaint at Yengel’s home, located in a subdivision roughly four miles northwest of Williamsburg and 14 miles northwest of the weapons station. Police found a “possible” military hand grenade and the fire marshal requested assistance from an explosive ordnance disposal team out of Yorktown.
Members of EOD Mobile Unit 2, Detachment Yorktown, and fire marshal personnel found bomb-making material and one partially completed improvised explosive device. Ryalls said the material consisted of smokeless gunpowder, military heat tablets and multiple pieces of iron pipe approximately 6 inches long and one-half inch in diameter, along with end caps. The partially completed IED consisted of a length of pipe of that size, along with connected wiring and a timing device but lacking explosive filler and a power source. The latter two elements would have completed the IED, Ryalls said.
Yorktown spokesman Mark Piggott said that according to an EOD officer, the “heat tablets” were essentially hand warmers.
Two adjoining homes were evacuated as a precaution, Ryalls said. All hazardous materials were removed by EOD personnel, he said.
Yengel was charged with manufacturing and possession of an explosive device, a felony, and with domestic assault, officials said.
Yengel enlisted April 24, 2001, and his decorations include three awards of the Good Conduct Medal, according to Navy Personnel Command. He is assigned to the branch health clinic at NWS Yorktown, according to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth spokeswoman Deborah Kallgren.
The arrest was first reported by Norfolk’s WTKR-TV.
