I saw a nice one in the Army magazine in the late 60's or early 70's.

A C-7 Caribou was making a steep descent, short landing on an improv field for the asst. Secretary (either Army or Defense) in Viet Nam.

The port gear dug into the soggy ground and tore the wing off the aircraft. I don't think there were any fatalities.
_________________________________________________________________
(After Mrs. Bell asks 007 what's on the schedule for today, "Oh, let's just wing it, Mrs. Bell,"––007, the improv flight instructor, (w,stte), "LALD")

That it is.



Also the video of the C-17 crash at Elmendorf is bad, too.  More pilot error due to lack of proper CRM.    They never got to a good speed for the maneuver they were trying and stalled it out.  



That safety brief sucked.  It was wing wide and, since we have C-17s in our wing, there were more than a few hands raised when the Wing Commander asked if anyone knew anyone on the mishap crew.  



That's one of the biggest reasons I'm rough on baby booms to stay alert in the cockpit.  They're going to die right along with the pilots if they fuck up.



 

ABOARD USS NIMITZ, At Sea (NNS) –– During the final phase of USS
Nimitz’s (CVN 68) work up schedule off the coast of Florida in 1981, an
EA-6B Prowler crashed as it was landing on the flight deck, killing 14
crew men and injuring 45 others.



That was the first time I heard the call "General Quarters" WITHOUT the usual "this is a drill."

Somewhere in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield...I was the driver of an M577 command track vehicle. We were doing leap frog exercises at night. I didn't have the NVG's but my Track Commander did, and he was relaying info to me as we went through the paces. We were on the side of a mountain on a road that carved its way out of the side and I was doing maybe ten or fifteen MPH. The cliff was about a 65 degree incline for about 200 meters down on my side. It rose to the top of the mountain on the passenger side. So....there we were, cruising along when the TC yelled "Look out!!!" Too late and not specific enough. I hit a bigg ass rock with the right track, big enough that it caused the track to teeter on the left track for what seemed like an eternity. It started to feel like it was going to roll, so I pulled back on the left track with everything I had, This caused the right to slam back down but also caused the track to swivel around and now my nose was pointed on the edge of the cliff. I was actually sitting over the edge of the cliff, so I did the only thing I thought was available. I yelled "hold on!!" and started us straight down the cliff. Balancing act between trying to slow it down without flipping end over end. We got down to the bottom, I coasted to a stop, got out, checked my shorts, had a cigarette and thanked God I made it through that one.



National Training Center, Fort Irwin California, July 1992....I was in the 24th Infantry Division. One of my team mates was driving the Platoon Leader and he was using PVS-5's to see because it was about 2 AM. No depth perception with the NVG's then and he said he saw that there was a difference with the road, but had no idea it was a 7 foot drop. left front tire went, then the rest of the truck followed. The truck rolled over and if it was for the seat belt holding him in, he would have been crushed between the HMMWV and a huge rock they landed on.

Yeah I know the Battery Commander that eventually, and rightfully so, went to jail for it.

While I do not wish that upon anyone, he was an arrogant, abusive officer that ended up reaping what he had sown.

RIP for those killed.

During Annual Training, Michigan ARNG, Grayling

Our battery had just received a fire mission, crews were jumping getting ready for command to fire.  As they are tensed up, ready to pull the lanyard, a flipping A-10 flies over our position from the rear at about 200 feet!!!!

About the same time a Check Fire!  call comes from FDC, everyone just looked at each other.  Soooo close to becoming an AA battery that day....

I saw an APFSDS Sabot get shot off Hastings range in Fort Benning into the town of Cusseta Georgia.

I was at WTI in Yuma in 2008 for a training excercise for our wing Squadron. I was a Team Leader for the Security platoon and we were out in the middle of the desert with our HUMVEEs and role players practicing allthe Escalation of Force procedures ( I had a bunch of boots) my job as team leader was to utilize the mixed skids on station to do EOF on a crowd. So my gunner is attempting to pop his white star cluster towards the crowd to disperse them, he doesn't tell me that the pyro wont pop with the normal over hand procedure. I am in the VC spot and can't see off to the drivers side of the truck, so I can't see the pyro hasn't gone off. Driver tells me crowd is still coming so i call the skids in to do the low level flyover. Within a mjnute the birds swoop down and approach from my right, unbeknownst to me my idiot gunner is still trying to pop off the pyro.......

Just as the birds come abreast to the trucks about 50' off the deck the gunner slams the pyro onto the turret, finally firing the white star cluster; right infront/at the 2 skids. They both veer off and pop flares (I don't know if that was training or revenge) and sooooo narrowly avoid getting hit by the cluster. Training is halted, i get screamed at by every one of the instructors and the saftey personnell, Gunner gets pulled from training and stuffed into the safety vic for RTB. Needless to say the AA brief was long and very awkward. I bought each of the pilots a case of beer along with an extensive apology.

Same here.

A few I've seen or been nearby when they happened.

A unit at Riley fired a 25mm out of the range fans, gun was elevated as the Bradley was backing up and the gunner fucked up and squeezed the trigger, what really screwed all involved was that nobody called a cease fire right away, the Brad kept backing up and the OIC of the range just watched.  They finally stopped after a few hundred meters when someone else called cease fire.  Turns out the round ended up landing in someones field off base.

FA unit that fired illum in winds that were far to high and they ended up drifting off post and almost burned down a barn.

NTC rotation in 08 had an M113 drive up the back of a HMMWV, nobody hurt.  Another was a HMMWV parked on a slope in front of another HMMWV the uphill HMMWV didn't have chalk blocks or a parking break engaged and when a soldier walked between the two it rolled and crushed his legs.

Multiple roll overs in theatre, not training accidents, but not combat related.  One guy lost part of a leg and one of his testicles.

A little back-story first...

I enlisted in the Army '92 as a 16S (Stinger...) and re-enlisted in '96 and changed jobs to a 67U (Chinook Mechanic...). Both the Stinger community and Chinook community are very small and everyone in them pretty much knows or knows of everyone else.

As a Stinger, I spent some time in 3/62 ADA of the 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Drum before going to Ft. Riley in '94. When I later became a Chinook Mechanic, I was at Ft. Bragg.

Well, the 18th Airborne Corps was doing a big training exercise at Ft. Drum in '97 or '98...one of the Chinooks from C Co. 159th AVN (my unit at Ft. Bragg...) was sling-loading a HMMWV of a Brigade Commander (Full-Bird Colonel for the uninformed here...) from the 10th Mountain Division. The Crew Chief holding hook release (aka "pickle switch"...) fucked up, accidently "fat fingered" the pickle switch and dropped the good Colonel's HMMWV containing a couple million dollars of high-speed secure communication equipment from about 150 - 200 feet up.

The HMMWV burned in and missed landing on my former Stinger Team Chief and good friend (SGT Scott Morgan, whom I had worked with at Ft. Drum a few years earlier...) and his then gunner by about 50 feet.  Small fucking world...

The Colonel was supremely pissed but Thank God nobody was hurt.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another time in '94 or '95, when I was Ft. Riley, one of the Field Artillery units had an "oopsie" and sent a round wide of the impact area...and wide of the entire Ft. Riley military reservation. The round landed in an old lady's backyard in the little town of Riley, KS and destroyed an out-building. Again, Thank God no one was hurt. The Army paid the lady a fat chunk of change to have the building rebuilt and also for her inconvienence.

The Battery Commander, XO and First Sergeant were all relieved and the battery spent another 10 - 14 days in the field being "retrained" on their jobs.

A fellow shooter from years ago told us this story, I really don't doubt him but it sounds pretty unlikely:

He was stationed in S. Korea, given his age I'd guess the time frame was late 60's to early 70's. He was an ordnance handler, and worked on nuclear weapons, both maintaining them on base and prepping-loading-unloading-storing them on and off the airplanes.

He described a test set with a series of red/green lights. Each set of lights indicated the status of a safety in the weapon, if all the lights were green the weapon was ready to detonate.

Apparently a plane landed with an armed weapon, they went out and hooked up the test set and all lights immediately went green. The story gets a little vague there, obviously the guys on the line were somewhat reluctant to mess with a nuke they perceived as ready to go high-order.

Anyway, true or not it makes a good story.

I worked on air delivered nukes for a number of years and that story, if the time frame is correct, is BS. As you said, cool story, but BS.

One of the survivors was Jason Wildfong who later went on to EOD school in 1999 and was one of my class mates he got sent to the 707th EOD in Fort Lewis, from their he deployed to Kuwait in 2001.

 While performing range clearance operations Udari range the Navy came in to do some bombing training so the EOD team along with the FAC went to the range tower to observe. The first bombing run the Pilot pickled off 3 MK82 bombs it wasn't until they were released that the FAC realized that he told the pilot to bomb the very tower they were in. It killed all personal in the tower instantly. Jason's name is on the EOD Memorial at NAVSCOLEOD

When I was at Ft. Hood with 1st Cav in '76 the field arty TacFire system was just coming on line and had lots of teething problems. We were on a big live fire exercise with attached infantry, ADA and combat engineers. A round of 155mm arty hit between my tank (bn. CO's) and one from C com pay. Fragment took the left arm off the TC right at the bottom of his 1st Cav patch. He damn near bled to death.
On a FTX at night a company CO ordered a good plt leader to go future to the right even though the platoon leader didn't like the terrain. This was just pre NVG and they hit a gully, rolled the tank down into creek squishing the Lt and trapping the gunner.
During Division Restructure Study two crunchies (11Bs) went to sleep next to a tank trail and were both run over and killed.
A Lt. Supposedly went AWOL from an infantry unit in the brigade. A year later I was teaching an advanced armor officers course at Ft. Knox and a Capt. I knew from Hood told me what had happened. The green Lt had crashed in his sleeping bag in front of his M113. The order came in to roll, no one woke him up, the track rolled over him killing him. Later in daylight they realized he was missing, but instead of looking for him they wrote him off as AWOL. A year later while on an FTX someone saw a sleeping bag laying out and thought "score". When they found the skeleton the shit hit the fan! The Lt.s CO, 1st Sgt, plt Sgt, track commander all were relieved.
I was running safety during our 4.2" mortar ARTEP at Hood and we were told to cease fire, range cold. A cobalt engineer at the next range had a 2pm block of TNT go off in his face. Lifesaver helo cut across the supposedly closed impact area when I saw three rounds of arty impact just behind ad to the right of the Huey. I had one radio on Lifesavers freq and one on Range Controls and yelled "Lifesaver 16 get the he'll out of there, you are taking incoming! I then yelled on the range control freq to check fire, check fire! Range control went crazy trying to find out what was going on. A battery 1/76th FA admitted to firing, my company CO jumped in the jeep and drove us to their range. Once there he grabbed the battery CO and knocked him on his ass. Shortly after this the Division CO landed in his Huey and after a short discussion releived the arty bn. CO, battery CO, and everyone above the rank of E7!
On the grenade range I was next to a burnt out Sp5 who was a major drunk. He had been a CSM until he punched out a smartass Lt. He threw before I did, SHORT! Same with the second grenade, the frags made a helluva noise going over your head!
We were prepping for a big joint arms live fire exercise and my tank, the Bn COs was out adjusting fire when a round hit 45m directly in front of us. I was standing in the loaders hach and took small frags to the back. My driver was screaming and I was afraid he was dying. I looked over the col., he looked ok and was busy yelling in the radio so I climbed under the gun to check the driver. A frag had hit the front of the turret right nest to the coax barrel and fell down on his crotch burning through his fatigues right next to his dick! TacFire was at fault putting one tube of 155 arty out of bounds. We were lucky that the round passed over us and hit on a downhill slope causing the frags to mostly pass overhead.
In Germany while on the BNCOC FTX we were sitting inside our tanks and tracks keeping warm when an 8" howitzer airburst over us putting a fist sized chunk of steel through the hood of the controllers jeep and showering us with fragments. FTX cancelled no one hurt though!
While at annual gunnery at Graf we had just moved out of Camp Aachen when a battery of arty fired out of bounds and killed six GIs in the same buildings we had vacated a couple of days before.
We were at Graf getting ready for tank table IX when one of our Cobras came in to shoot. They were S models and still had mini guns. He was about 30 feet to my right rear firing. He then launched a TOW, either the initiator was bad or the gunner didn't use his clearance reticle because the TOW hit the ground and then the motor kicked in and it started running all over the place. I dropped down in the cupola and pared it was a training round! It finally died without hitting us but it damn sure made my ass pucker!

A-10 at Ft. Sill dropped a laser guided 500 pounder, but it targeted the marines and soldiers with the laser designator instead of the target being lit.  I think 12-13 died that day.  This was during basic training for me in '95.

Was that a 13F BNCO Class?

I remember that; was it an A-10 or an F-16?  A lieutenant who was in FAOBC with me in 93-94 was very close to where it hit, I think he got shook up real bad (physically and mentally) and his CPT standing next to him got killed.

LOL.  That happened more than a few times back in the old M-60 series days.  Fire APDS while indexed for HEP="MOONSHOT"!





 

+1 on the BS flag here.

Just like every gun that fires and kills some accidentally, 'just went off when I was cleaning it'.  



 

Not sure.  It just remember it being close enough to the basic trainee barracks that it scared the shit out of everyone for a moment.  We were used to hearing explosions all day, but this one was very different.  We were put on lockdown for awhile afterwards - they initially thought it might have been a terrorist attack

Pretty sure an A-10.  Met a guy years later that knew the pilot involved.  I forget what he said about him, but I think he ended up flying a desk.

In basic training two guys in my company dropped dead on Sand Hill, one heat stroke the other heart failure. We were one of the first units to go through basic with body armor (SAPI plates) and they hadn't adjusted the training for it yet so people where getting injured/killed like crazy. After we graduated the BN was disbanded!





























 

My bad - I though it was 68-0227, just going off of my faulty memory ....

"The airplane departed Altus AFB that night to take part in air refueling training.  That training was cut short, though, when an overheated brake ignited hydraulic fluid in the left aft landing gear well.  The fire ignited tires and other components before burning through the keel beam and continuing into the right aft well.   Rather than return to Altus, the crew elected to divert to the much closer Clinton-Sherman airfield (a former Air Force Base with a 13,500 feet runway length).  However, the crew sighted the lights of the Clinton Municipal Airport and set up an approach.  The runway at the MAP is only 4400 feet; the C-5 departed the south end of Runway 17, crossed an embankment, a road, and another embankment before sliding another 1000 feet into a field.  The airplane shed its landing gear during the slide, and broke into three major sections.  All nine crew escaped, with only a minor injury reported to one.  A fire fed by an open shut-off valve broke out 20 minutes after the crash, consuming the forward portion of the airplane."

Let's see...

Had a friend in flight school killed during a 4 plane join up.

Have a friend who had a ramp strike during night carrier qualifications- punched out and survived.

Have two friends, in separate instances, who had to hop out of and airplane due to a bird strike.

Had a friend killed when his wingman hit him.

I have more, but this is enough for now.

A TC at Ft. Knox was ground guiding his M60A1 in front of another to slave start it when he made the cardinal (and fatal) mistake of getting between the two tanks. The driver screwed up and pinned him between the two. His family was able to come and say goodbye before they backed the tanks apart and he immediately bled out.
At BNCOC at Vielsec they have photos of an M60A1 that ran off a 300ft bridge on the autobahn. It had a track break and went over landing turret first. The TCs boots were sticking out of the side of the cupola and the turret had a big crack in it. The whole crew was of course killed.
A guy murdered another GI by shooting his tank with a round of APDS-T. This was at the railhead outside Hohenfeld. Initially they thought the ammo on board the one tank had cooked off, but soon discovered what happened. The shooter was trying to kill a guy who was shagging his wife, but managed to kill the wrong guy badly injuring the shagger.

It was from one of the tenant arty units there.  2-5 FA.

I was in OBC when that happened.

In the mid-80s, I remember a number in the mid-500s per year due to training incidents.


Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

February 1958, Greenham Common Airbase, England

A B-47 bomber experiencing engine trouble during takeoff jettisoned two full 1,700 gallon fuel tanks from an altitude of 8,000 feet, which missed a designated safe impact area and exploded 65 feet behind a parked B-47 loaded with nuclear weapons. The resulting fire burned for 16 hours and caused the high explosives package of at least one weapon to explode. The explosion released radioactive material, including powdered uranium and plutonium oxides, at least 10 to 20 grams of which were found off base. An adjacent hangar was also severely damaged, and other planes nearby had to be hosed down to prevent their ignition by the intense heat fueled by the jet propellant and magnesium in the B-47. The fire killed two people, injured eight others, and destroyed the bomber.

November 26, 1958, Chennault Air Force Base, Lake Charles, Louisiana

A B-47 bomber caught fire on the ground, destroying the single nuclear weapon onboard. Contamination was limited to the immediate vicinity of the aircraft wreckage.

January 17, 1966, Palomares, Spain

A B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided in midair with a KC-135 tanker near Palomares, Spain. Of the four H-bombs aboard, two weapons' high explosive material exploded on ground impact, releasing radioactive materials, including plutonium, over the fields of Palomares. Approximately 1,400 tons of slightly contaminated soil and vegetation were later taken to the United States for storage at an approved site. A third nuclear weapon fell to earth but remained relatively intact; the last one fell into the ocean.


The weapon that sank in the Mediterranean set off one of the largest search and recovery operations in history. The search took about eighty days and employed 3,000 Navy personnel and 33 Navy vessels, not including ships, planes, and people used to move equipment to the site. Although the midget sub "Alvin" located the bomb after two weeks, it was not recovered until April 7. Wreckage from the accident fell across approximately 100 square miles of land and water.


The accident occurred during a routine high altitude air refueling operation as the B-52 was returning to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, after flying the southern route of the Strategic Air Command air alert mission code named "Chrome Dome." The bomber was attempting its third refueling with a KC-135 tanker from the American base at Moron, when the nozzle of the tanker's boom struck the bomber. The boom ripped open the B-52 along its spine, snapping the bomber into pieces. The KC-135's 40,000 gallons of jet fuel ignited, killing seven crewmen.

January 21, 1968, Thule, Greenland

Four nuclear bombs were destroyed in a fire after the B-52 bomber carrying them crashed approximately seven miles southwest of the runway at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. The B-52, from Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York, crashed after a fire broke out in the navigator's compartment. The pilot was en route to Thule AFB to attempt an emergency landing. Upon impact with the ground, the plane burst into flames, igniting the high explosive outer coverings of at least one of the bombs. The explosive then detonated, scattering plutonium and other radioactive materials over an area about 300 yards on either side of the plane's path, much of it in "cigarette box-sized" pieces.


The bomber had been flying the Arctic Circle route as part of the Strategic Air Command's continuous airborne alert operation, code-name "Chrome Dome." One crew member was killed in the crash.

January 21, 1968, Thule, Greenland

Four nuclear bombs were destroyed in a fire after the B-52 bomber carrying them crashed approximately seven miles southwest of the runway at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. The B-52, from Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York, crashed after a fire broke out in the navigator's compartment. The pilot was en route to Thule AFB to attempt an emergency landing. Upon impact with the ground, the plane burst into flames, igniting the high explosive outer coverings of at least one of the bombs. The explosive then detonated, scattering plutonium and other radioactive materials over an area about 300 yards on either side of the plane's path, much of it in "cigarette box-sized" pieces.


The bomber had been flying the Arctic Circle route as part of the Strategic Air Command's continuous airborne alert operation, code-name "Chrome Dome." One crew member was killed in the crash.

January 24, 1961, Goldsboro, North Carolina

In what nearly became a nuclear catastrophe, a B-52 bomber on airborne alert carrying two nuclear weapons broke apart in midair. The B-52 experienced structural failure in its right wing and the aircraft's resulting breakup released the two weapons from a height of 2,000-10,000 feet. One of the bomb's parachutes deployed properly and that weapon's damage was minimal. However, the second bomb's parachute malfunctioned and the weapon broke apart upon impact, scattering its components over a wide area. According to Daniel Ellsberg, the weapon could have accidentally fired because "five of the six safety devices had failed." Nuclear physicist Ralph E. Lapp supported this assertion, saying that "only a single switch" had "prevented the bomb from detonating and spreading fire and destruction over a wide area."


Despite an extensive search of the waterlogged farmland where the weapon was believed to have landed, the bomb's highly enriched uranium core was never recovered. In order to prevent any discovery of the lost portion of the weapon, the Air Force purchased an easement which required that permission be obtained before any construction or digging could begin in the area. Three crew members were killed in the crash.


The accident was apparently so serious that it was reported to newly-elected President John F. Kennedy. According to Newsweek, President Kennedy was informed after the accident that "there had been more than 60 accidents involving nuclear weapons" since World War II, "including two cases in which nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missiles were actually launched by inadvertence." As a result of the Goldsboro accident, the U.S. placed many new safety devices on its nuclear arsenal and the Soviet Union was encouraged to do the same.

An old Medical buddytold me this one about one of his troopies over in Iraq.




 

2007- I believe these both happened to 2-2 SCR in germany for our train up for iraq. I forget which companies.

1st incident- During lanes for a gunnery: stryker pulls into berm and starts engaging targets. Dismounts exit and run up to the berm and set. One of the team got tangled in some wires or straps inside the truck and it takes him a minute to get untangled. He exits the vehicle but goes the opposite way around the truck. He pops around the side of the truck as the 249 gunner is shooting at ivans. The guy gets shot in the head by accident and dies a few days later.

2nd incident- Different company, same time frame- They are leaving the range and the gunner throws the mk19 up onto one of the storage racks (where the at-4 goes inside) and neglects to strap it down. One of the dismounts lays down on the floor of the truck to catch some zzz. The stryker hits a big bump and the mk19 jumps off the rack and lands handle first from four feet onto the guys face. He had to be medically seperated and have reconstructive surgery. (mk19 weighs about 70 pounds)

3rd- early 2006- yakima- new driver (stryker) going downhill following too close to the truck in front of him. An ass load of dust is being kicked up and he fails to see the bend in the road. He cranks the wheel hard and the truck slides and flips over and rolls a couple times. No one is seriously hurt but the LRAS is totally smashed. The m2 is a little dirty.

A couple other incidents not accidents.

1- Soldiers suck starts his m16 in the motorpool in the shitter.
2- stryker hits a EFP on a bridge in baghdad. It disables all control of the vehicle but the truck is still moving forward. It smashes through the guardrail and flips all the way over onto its top. Roughly twenty feet. No one was injured.
3-  In our AO we had a few routes that were deemed black due to IED's. Some major decides to take a joy ride with his headquarters section in our AO and turns down one of the black routes. Of course he hits an IED and it breaks a guys leg that was riding in the back. derp derp derp

I'll be damned.  Thanks for the correction RON.

SSG Funkhouser-one of our TCIs at tank school told us that story when I went through in 1987.  I thought about posting it but didn't really know the details.

Not too long ago, there was an ID National Guard M1A1 Abrams parked on the boresight line overnight on Range 1 after a day of training (I believe it was Armor Training Bn that was puting students through school).  There were two Soldiers standing guard over the tanks.  The tanks have their main gun elevated, and ironically the way the range is set up, pointed towards Mountain Home AFB some miles away in Mountain Home.  

Well, nothing is more dangerous than a bored Soldier (or Marine for that matter), and these guys decide to get inside the turret and "check things out".  One of them sees the "master blaster" (manual firing handle like an explosives detonator that you see in the movies that you twist the handle to generate a charge of electricity) at the gunners station, and rotates it.  

Yep, you guessed it.  There was a round in the chamber and it fired.  The RSO or OIC didn't clear the tank before going "cold" for the day, so a round was left in the chamber and it was fired at max elevation.  I don't know if they went to look for it, or if it was TPT-HEAT or TPT-Sabot, but that must have been one hell of a surprise for the two that were out there that night (to say nothing of having to explain THAT one to the CO).

When I was in basic trainning on FTX we were making our fighting positions then putting cover on them.  I saw a soldier using an axe to cut down some branches to use for cover and wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings.  Another soldier was picking up branches off the ground not paying attention either.  Before I could say a word the soldier swings the axe hard and misses the branch and misses the other soldiers head by inches.  The only reason it was a near miss was the other soldier bent over to get a branch.   Had he been standing, it would have been very bad.

What is up with the runway and the Herc?  Soft spot under the asphalt?



 

In '78 when I was a gunnery instructor in gunnery skills branch, The Armor School a kid in AIT stole a tank from his motor pool. He had gotten shit faced on the 3.2 Blatz Beer and got picked up by the MPs. Apparently he was pissed because he drove the tank to the MP station and ran through it several times. When sandwiches and chips started falling around him he realized he had hit the PX snack bar right next to the MP Station. When he rolled out the snack bar he was faced with MPs armed with LAWs and gave up. He had demolished a bunch of cars as well as the building and the tank had to go to Anninston for a re-build. He had to pay it all back on an E1 salary from Levanworth!

Some bad stories here

Worst I've seen personally was at Robin Sage as OPFOR (and I hope its the worst)

TAC threw a grenade sim towards an OPFOR firing a saw.  Landed between his legs, blowing the endcap way up in his leg along with his uniform and boxers.  

Charleston Naval Weapons Depot: Taking on 76mm ammunition passing the rounds from one guy to the next and I'm at the bottom of the ladder, anyway the guy at top of the ladder drops one of the rounds and it starts bouncing down the steps before it reached the bottom. The only thing more noticeable than the silence was the deadly stench of 7 grown men shitting their pants simultaneously as we waited for this thing to explode.
Later on that day we were taking on SM-1 and Harpoon missiles when something went wrong with the crane and an SM-1 that was being hoisted into our missile magazine came crashing to the deck. Luckily, I wasn't involved with this one, but I'm pretty sure there was some shitting of the pants there too as we heard a lot of bitching and moaning from laundry the next day.

Somewhere on the Ocean: We had a Coast Guard detachment onboard that was conducting VBSS operations. As they went to board a freighter their RHIB flipped and everybody went into the drink. As one of two SAR swimmers I was pretty busy getting guys out of the water. When that was said and done myself and my fellow swimmer were tasked with affixing lines to the RHIB so that we could flip the boat upright. It was going pretty good, and we were enjoying the swim in the warm waters until the shark watch spotted some sharks and started shooting at them when they were about 10 feet away. Yep, shit my wetsuit.

Somewhere in the Persian Gulf: We had an SH-60 onboard that was out doing a patrol. The helo controller (can't remember the actual term) onboard our ship that happened to on watch and in constant communication with the SH-60 crew neglected to inform Fire Control that the helo was returning and we should put the CIWS in standby mode. This guy was an absolute fucktard and couldn't do his job for shit. Anyway as the Sh-60 closed the CIWS locked on, tracked, and began to spin up in preparation to shoot down what it perceived as a threat. Luckily, one of the Fire Control guys picked up one this and a few seconds before it was too late and placed the CIWS into standby mode.

Shit I've actually got tons of stories like this.

I was on the investigation team. The woman had an 8in. piece of shrapnel pass thru her head and embed in the cars B-pillar. Horrible scene.

What year was that?

We were putting the port side small boat over the side to do a boarding when the forward fall broke.  6 men went in the water and 2 were still holding the monkey lines.



We fished everyone out and no one was the worse for wear.

one i know of was completly avoidable.  i heard about it from buddies that were stationed at ft campbell.   happened sometime close to 2000/ 2001.

i guess it was a grenade range/, or a live fire exercize that included some grenades. ........ someone pulled the pin on a grenade, but they forgot the thumbclip, and threw the grenade. the grenade with thumbclip, and no pin falls into the grass, and once everyone figures out what happened, they were like OH SHIT !


this was all fine and dandy.. except.   the commander, colonel or something, decided they could " find" the grenade, then call eod or something. they made the soldiers get online, and arms length, and start walking the grass looking for the grenade. well someone found it with their foot... it blew, and killed at least one soldier, wounding several others.

thats all i can remember, ill look for a report,


i think this was it.....doesnt mention the dumbass commander though..


Grenade Kills 1, Hurts 11 During Army Exercise
OTHER NEWS TO NOTE - SOUTHAugust 07, 1996FORT CAMPBELL, KY. — A grenade accident killed one soldier and wounded 11 taking part in an Army exercise Tuesday. A small group of soldiers was participating in the live-fire exercise when the fragmentation grenade exploded, an Army spokesman said. The Army would not discuss the circumstances of the accident, which is under investigation. Fragmentation grenades send out heavy shrapnel on all sides. Soldiers must take cover because the fragments travel farther than the grenade can be thrown



heres a actual account of the incident...

Into the Darkness
I still remember that day, 6 August 1996. I guess I will always remember it. I was a young battalion commander with the 1-187 Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Commanding a battalion in the “Rakkasans” was a dream come true. The battalion was conducting a series of live-fire maneuvers using all of the weapons an infantry soldier could expect to use on some future battlefield, including grenades, claymore mines, and bangalore torpedoes. It never made much sense to me to avoid using a weapon in peacetime training simply because of the risk involved. You have to train the way you are going to fight. The risk of injury or death will be greater in combat if a soldier is unfamiliar with the weapons he is expected to fight with once the bullets start flying.

On that fateful day, the battalion scout platoon was conducting a maneuver live-fire using their automatic weapons and grenades. During one of the exercises, the platoon leader conducted a reconnaissance through very thick brush with two grenades attached to his LBE (load bearing equipment). After returning from his reconnaissance, he discovered that he was missing a grenade, but the grenade pin was still attached to his LBE. The incident was reported to the brigade headquarters, range control, and EOD (explosive ordinance disposal). The general assumption was that the grenade was a dud or it would have detonated a few seconds after the pin was pulled. Nonetheless, range control recommended that we shut down the range until September or October, at which time they would burn the dry brush to detonate or expose the grenade. I agreed. The division staff had other plans, and we were directed to find the grenade

EOD refused to look for the grenade. Mine detectors were brought to the site, but were not effective because the brush was too thick.
The directive from the division commander was a legal order, but it was a bad decision. In the end, the soldiers of the scout platoon were used to conduct a very slow and deliberate search for the grenade. The platoon leader and noncommissioned officers (NCOs) of the platoon decided to limit the search party to just the platoon leader and NCOs. The junior enlisted soldiers would not be exposed to the danger. I decided to join the search team, in spite of the objections from the leaders of the scout platoon.

I was moved by the fact that they did not want to expose me to the danger they faced, but I knew in my heart that I needed to stand beside them. Everything that I believed in as a leader, such as leading by example and sharing in the hardships of your soldiers, would have been a lie if I simply watched them go into harm’s way. It was a bad deal, and everyone knew it. It is during those times when the true character of a leader is tested. It is easy to lead when the risk is low. It is another story when the threat of injury or death is real, and men are scared, tired, hungry, and dirty. It is during those times that the leader must step forward and speak those simple words known to every infantryman, “follow me.”


We found the grenade that day, but not by the preferred method. I don’t know how it happened, but it detonated right beneath my feet and threw me a distance of about ten feet through the air. After hitting the ground on my left shoulder, I rolled over on my back. My vision was blurred, but I could see. I was having trouble breathing, and my ears were ringing. I could hear the screams and cries of wounded men, my men, and I tried mightily to get up, but my body felt like it was nailed to the ground and on fire. I can remember conducting a “systems check” as I laid on the ground. I tried to move my fingers, and I was successful. I tried to wiggle my toes, and I thought I was successful there too. Next, I opened my flack vest to increase the oxygen flow into my lungs. I felt like I had a mouth full of pebbles, so I tried to spit the objects out. I learned later that the “pebbles” were my teeth that were shattered in the blast. I could not see my legs, but I could see blood pouring out of my left thigh. I took my hands and tried to stop the bleeding, and then told myself to “hold on…hold on…”
3
Within seconds, I was surrounded by soldiers of the scout platoon who immediately began first aid. I knew I must have been in bad shape because they were working frantically to stop the bleeding from every part of my body, using their T-shirts, belts, and anything else they could get their hands on. I was so proud of them. They recovered from the initial shock (many of them wounded themselves), and responded the way they had been trained. I also knew I was in bad shape because another officer in the battalion began to reassure me that I was going to be alright. I had been in the Army long enough to know that it probably meant that my condition was serious.


Fourteen soldiers were injured that day; one died and three were in critical condition. I was one of the critical soldiers. I would learn later, that the grenade blew off my left foot; severely damaged my right foot and leg; destroyed my right elbow; damaged my left shoulder; damaged my right ear; and lodged dozens of pieces of shrapnel throughout my face, chest, stomach, and legs. All of the critical soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to the hospital on Fort Campbell, treated and stabilized by doctors, and then flown for about 30 minutes to a trauma hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.

From the time of the blast, until I went into emergency surgery at the Vanderbilt Trauma Center, I was awake. The pain was excruciating, but the pain meant that I was alive. I am told that on three different occasions at Vanderbilt, my parents were brought into my room with a chaplain when the doctors thought that I had lost the fight. But on three different occasions, they were wrong. After multiple surgeries and three weeks in the intensive care unit, I was medically evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I would remain at Walter Reed as an in-patient for almost a year.


I have been asked on many occasions by friends and strangers, why did I stay in the military? Why not accept a medical retirement, start a second career, and earn a lot of money? Why not work in a profession that is “safe” and is not physically demanding on my damaged body? The short answer I give them is that it is not about the money or a life of leisure. So, what is it about? The answer to that question is a little more difficult and harder to understand unless you have ever been a soldier. In the remainder of this paper, I will attempt to answer the question, “Why I stayed?” But in order to do so, I must go back to the beginning, back to West

Explain what?!  'crew's just off on their ammo count....and by the way NO, that's not an end-cap stuck in that badger hole!