CUMBERLAND, Md. -- History could have come to life in very much the wrong way at a veterans museum where a rocket on display for two years was discovered Wednesday to be live.

After Allegany County authorities were notified that the Mark 1 rocket on display in Cumberland might be live, the state fire marshal's office and the FBI confirmed it was. Bomb experts removed the ordnance and rendered it safe.

The 48-inch-by-2.75-inch rocket was similar to those used on helicopter gun ships during the Vietnam War, said deputy state fire marshal Joseph Zurolo Jr. A local veteran donated it to the museum, which is in a chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Zurolo said. Authorities are investigating how the man came to possess the live ordnance.