A similar accident, Ft. Polk. 1984, 30 day FTX and one of the armor units had a guy fall asleep on the ground next to an M-60. Of course the sound of running tanks didn't phase his sleep. The crew of the tank he's sleeping by hops in. (this is at night by the way with black out conditions) cranks it up and moves off running over this kid's head. I worked that one, I can still him today.

Same FTX, getting ready for Reforger. We have this CCP set up in one of the towns. Big convoy of 113s and 60s. Military traffic has been snarling civilian traffic all day. This guy on a motorcycle decides he's not going to wait for us to let him through, so he blows through the CCP and races down the road about a half mile and WHAM right into the back end of a 113.

We (5th MP) managed to kill a semi load of chickens at one of our CCPs (same damn FTX too!)....I stopped eating chicken at the dining facility after that. In fact I stopped eating there period.

Oh and Sabot, dropping a track, I'd seen that a couple of times, once on Reforger. The 60 went through five parked cars and a guesthouse wall before they got it stopped. And those boys inside were banged up pretty good from the resulting "ride"

You armor boys kept our damage control officer really busy during Reforger.

1. While stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Florida, A Marine from the weapons station went postal, stole a sniper rifle and started taking shots around the base. S.P.'s, NIS, Marines, and rent-a-cops were turned loose to track him down. They get to my barracks room and I'm in the shower getting ready to go onduty, I open the bathroom door and hear FREEZE!! RAISE YOUR HANDS AND TURN AROUND!. Dude, I dropped that towel and "Yes sir'ed" lickedity split! This N.I.S. agent had a silver plated snub nose .38 pointed at the side of my head and I swear that barrel was 3 feet across!
After they searched my room and left I went over to my rack and about passed out from not breathing!

2. Onboard the USS Constellation CV-63 in July 1987 in the Indian Ocean circling Diego Garcia. The onboard TV is showing night flight ops. While hooking up a F/A-18, a crewman looses his concentration and gets to close to the intake. PooF! The guy is gone, Feet first. The engine starts smoking and blowing chunks, only its not the guy, just his clothes and helmet. They get the plane shut down and they find the guy in the intake stark naked and pastey white! The suction was so great that his lower extremities were totally black and blue from the blood pooling. He was stone deaf and totally delerious, He was medevacd the next day.

I was MI and never saw combat, but we had a few things happen:
1) Motorpool in Virginia, 1987. Friend of mine was slaving two 5-ton truck together to get one started. Nimrod had a keyring full of keys in his hand when he plugs the live cable into the dead truck. Arcing electricity threw him off the truck, melted the keys, and left a really interesting burn on his hand.

2) Same motorpool, same year - I'm sure this has happened plenty of times but it still scared us all - guy was inflating a 5-ton tire in an inflation cage. He got distracted and over-inflated it. When the ring blew off the wheel, it sounded like a bomb had gone off - and it bowed the entire inflation cage a few inches outward. If not for that cage, it would've easily killed the guy.

3) On convoy outside Ft. Bragg, 1988 - I was driving a 5-ton with a hut, hauling a big generator, second in line behind a like vehicle. We were on a two-lane road, approaching a bridge during a pouring rain. A civilian, impatient with the pace of the convoy, passes me on the right shoulder. He then tries to pass the lead vehicle, and actually impacts the generator. Normally, this would mean pulling over and checking damage, but this nimrod goes to complete the pass. Well, his car gets caught on the front bumper of the 5 ton and gets swung around sideways. The a-driver sees this and goes nuts, yelling at the driver, who doesn't believe him. So, they keep pushing the car sideways towards the bridge abutment ahead. I was honking and flashing lights as well to get his attention. Fortunately, the driver did finally stop about a hundred yards before the river - that car had 8 inches of bumper INSIDE their driver-side windows, and three very frightened passengers. Only a scratch in the paint of the 5-ton. Civilians tried to sue the Army but it was plainly their fault, so dismissed.

Too many close shaves to tell 'em all, but I'll describe the two I remember best.

1. Based at Elephant Pass (northern Sri Lanka) with Recce Group Charlie of 6th Singha Rifles in '91. Sniper team in a hide in treeline. Called mortars in on terra vehicle convoy. Mopped up with scopes at 600 yards. My partner (South African) took his last shot in low light and he took out a Caucasian doctor. Pissed off the Tigers no end. Swept through our treeline while we stayed in our hide. We could hear them talking as they walked past within 15 yards. Pissed myself. Walked back to camp after dark.

2. Went out in the dark before first light with Rudi (same partner as above) and laid up. I was shooter. Two kills at first light, one at 470 yards, one at 550 or so. Moved hides and watched a road all day. Nothing worth hitting. Moved out at last light and walked back to camp. Mortared by the terras as we came in. Hit in the back by shrap, both eardrums ruptured, concussed, medical board out of the Army.

Ive had a mishap or few that could have ended worse than it did...

While serving in Iraq back in 2003, I was at the front gate checking vehicles... A convoy came back off of patrol, and started normal procedures for entering the camp, including clearing weapons. Clearing the ma deuce (50 cal) on a vehicle in front of me was some no name private who had no clue what he was doing... During the process of clearing the weapon, he ended up firing it directly towards my head... Lets just say if it wasn't for those fiber hescos filled with sand, I wouldnt be typing this. The bullet ended up penetrating 90% of the Hesco and I was deaf for about an hour... Had I not been bleeding from the ears, I may have kicked that private square in the pants...

Had the rear tires, suspension and axle blown up on one of those military pickups during a convoy in bagdad, stuck in center of town for 3 hours until we got the area secure and a hemmit out to flatbed it out of there.. that was fun...

On a slightly funnier note, on the convoy up to where I was staying in Iraq I ended up hitching a ride in a military version of a tractor trailer... Cant remember the name. The one with the trailer with all the wheels that turn... anyway.. I had stripped all my field and protective gear off and pulled my flight suit down around my ankles, (I was wearing PT shorts underneath...) It was hot and the driver did it, so I figured it couldnt be too dangerous on the ride north... (Didnt know it was his first ride north also... should have asked.) It turned out to be a Baath Party election day, and the streets around bagdad were filled with people. These people seemed happy enough that we were there... There were a few people who were angry, but overall, with the thousands of people crouding the streets, the mood seemed good. I had my weapon facing out the window, but my guard was down... Next thing I know some angry Iraqi is throwing something at me... Thinking "Oh Crap!!", and ducking instead of shooting, I waited for the grenade or explosive to enter the cab of the truck... Nothing... I sit back up and shreaded paper is floating all around, and the Iraqi is getting a good kick out of what he just did... Needless to say after that I had all my gear on and was on guard for the rest of the trip...

Another Oh crap moment... unfortionately with tragic results. Driving from chow hall late in my deployment in Iraq, see smoke... Me and another firefighter are driving a fire truck ( if you could call a 5 ton with 2 600 gallon tanks on the back and a pony motor a fire truck.) so we go investigate... Sure enough.. Fire... An Iraqi officers quarters occupied by no one is on fire and there are multiple explosions inside. (I stayed on an abandon Iraqi airbase) We get reports of someone still inside, so we pull a hoseline and go in... We cant find anyone, and now we are in a burning house and stuff is still exploding around us... Right there it hits us... Oh crap... Turns out what was exploding were some old ejection seat primers... Think of a shotgun shell 2 inches long and 2 inches across, without the slug... We ended up getting out safely and extinguishing the fire... (Turns out one soldier wasnt so lucky. But we didnt notice him until after the fire was out. One of the initial explosions unfortionately killed him.)

Have more stories... Maybe Ill share more later.

The exciting part:
In 94 I served in finnish army (mandatory 8 months). I was a radio operator in artillery. In one practice I was in artillery spotter team, we were supposed to land a full barrage with 122 and 155 mm guns on target area. The safe distance between our spotting team and the barrage was supposed to be a good 250 metres. I think our LT got his map upsidedown or something, because when the shells started landing, they dropped way too close for my liking. We could feel the blastwaves. The barrage lasted only about 2 minutes, but man was I scared! Afterwards, when investigating the target area we found out that the closest round dropped only about 80-90 metres from us.

A few days later, again in the spotting team, this time with mortars. Supposed to direct a 2 min. barrage on a hill side. This time our safe distance was a good 300 metres. After about 1 minute of shooting, our LT was looking at the barrage through his binoculars, and starts to shout at me: "Something's moving in the target area, cease fire, CEASE FIRE YOU A*****E!!!!" I sent the order to the mortars. The firing stopped, and very cautiosly we went to see what was it that was moving in there. It was a mess! 47 dead reindeers! And we thought we hit peole! We were so relieved we laughed like idiots, and at the same time I puked my guts out, the sight was so disgusting.

This later story actually made it to local newspapers, the first mishap didn't. Btw, just in case someone's interested: reindeer is a semi domesticated animal in northern parts of Finland. Some people make their living out of growing them. The owner of those "casualties" got a good compensation for those lost animals. 1000 marks/head, if I recall correctly. It was quite a big money back in 1994.

with 21 years in the US Army I've seen many close calls or worse. Here's a few.
1. Jan 76, Ft. Devens, Ma, I was a M113A1 driver with Trp D 5 Cav. was returning back from winter training and lost control of the M113A1 and it did 360s down the road for about 1/4 mile.

2. 76 or 77, Ft. Hood, Tx, A 1 Bn 41 Inf: we were conducting water crossing with our M113A1 when the one I was driving got hit with a wake caused by a safety boat. Needless to say my APC took a nose-dive and began to sink. Fortunately no one was lost.

3. 79, AT Plt, CSC 1 Bn 50 Inf, Ft. Irwin, CA (Pre-NTC) I was the Platoon Leader's Jeep driver. While trying to stay up with our M113A1 with raised TOW (Tow on a pedestal), I saw something in the scrub in front of us and I slammed on the brakes and threw my LT through the windshield. His response was What the #$#%!!!!. You @@$#%Q!!!! Well to his shock, I took him around the front of the jeep and pointed to a 105mm live HEAT Round with the tip sticking up in the air and the jeep bumper that was about 5 feet or closer to it.

4. 1980, 3 Bn 17 Inf, 7 Inf Div, Panama (Operation Just Cause). While counducting post Operation Just Cause mission one UH-60 carrying members from one of my sister companies slammed into the side of a mountain and killed everyone aboard.

5. A funny one, but costly. around 1986, Ft. Hunter-Liggett, CA. an 81mm Mortar (plus) during a Life Fire Excerse did an adjust fire with a final fire for effect. Expended around 45 rounds. No human lives lost. However, a local cattle man lost around 15 head of cattle. Cost the US Army a few dollars and a 1LT his career! :-) :-) :-)

I can't think of any that have happened to me(yet) so Im going to throw this one is about a buddy of mine.

Whenever a convoy or mounted patrol would come back onto the FOB all weapons must be cleared before actually entering the bases. However, all crew-served weapons had to be cleared before you get to the MCC(Movement Control Center). So were going down this stretch of road between the main gate and the MCC almost ready to stop on the side at the clearing barrels for individual weapons. Buddy behind me is the gunning a Mk.19. Right before we stop I hear this odd whizz go over my head. Then at my 12o clock I hear a CRUMP! And a small dust cloud. My first thought was someone threw a grenade or an RPG was fired. Then I realized what I heard. Apparently my buddy was clearing his Mk.19 when one of the MOLLE loops on his vest caught the butterflys(trigger) on the weaon causing it to fire. Not only did this round go INSIDE the FOB, but right next to the damn helipad where two medevacs where parked! Luckily on his part, no one was hurt and the only trouble he got in was he had a to pull a week of extra duty.

A Salty Dip.... (sea story)
While serving as Executive Officer and training reserve navy cadets in 1978 using third-rate 115 foot wooden twin diesel 'boats' converted to navigational trainers, we got in a storm in the Georgia Straight between Vancouver Island and the mainland and were really in danger of broaching (rolling over). We had to carefully zig zag with the bow or stern into the swells and it took all day to travel 20 miles. A couple of times during the transit the engines shut down on us because the engine coolant sea-water intakes came out of the water and the lack of suction pressure shut them down. A couple of emergency restarts later and we were okay. Near safe landing on the west shore, we took a few really deep 'greenies' (where green-water waves break over the bow). were and they were so deep, the waves broke over the wheelhouse roof and we were actually submerged for a few seconds. Just as we were coming out of the last one, a log the size of a city bus flashed past the wheelhouse window in front of me and in the wink of an eye was gone down the starboard side and disappeard aft of us. The next day where we found paint chips and bashed wood at the spot the log had 'rubbed' us, there were leaves and bark chips stuck underneath the window wiper in front of where I was hanging on for dear life.....

Just about taken out by a tree while in a storm on the ocean.... never came closer to buying it than that......

Nothing near as exciting as the above stories, but I got struck by lightning during my first AT with my Guard unit. Lightning struck a pine tree, jumped to a HMMV throught the antenna, and from the HMMV to me and my TC. Blew us both into the woods about 20-25 ft, and generally messed up our world.

That lightning stuff hurts, so I don't reccomend messing with it.

:-)

I don't know. That really ranks up there as pretty scary.

Jeff

An Officer in my regiment was hit by lightning in the Falklands. His nickname ever after was "Flash".

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

In Soltau, Germany in the '80s' we had been on excercise and me and my mate Steph were returning to Battalion driving an FV 432. There was a loooooong stretch of wide, straight road that we knew ended in a huge, square tank park next to a loading area for trains.

We were bored so we stopped at the start of the road lined our selves up at the correct angle (the 432 pulled slightly to the left) and floored it. We hit the greasy, muddy square doing about 40 MPH at which point I pulled the left lever as hard as I could and hung on for grim death!

The 432 did about 1 1/2 complete turns before coming to a very rocking stop (and didn't even lose a track)!

Whooping with delight and laughing like loonies me and Steph looked up and suddenly realised that our little caper had been carried out in full view of a British Armoured Regiment parked on the square...

Some senior blokes (with lots of brass and shiny bits) were already heading our direction with slightly unamused looks on their faces.

We were duly told in no uncertain terms that such antics were "frowned upon"!

Ach well! Yet another bollocking. It wasn't the first and certainly wasn't the last.

I can relate to the nick name Murdo...I was called "Lightning" and my TC was called "Rod" (let's just say he was at "atttention" when they cut his nomex off of him). To make matters worse, both of us almost got thrown out of the tank the next week during maneuver phase. We broke our medical profiles to get back into the field, since we were both about to go nuts from staring at the ceiling in the barracks. (we were billeted in different areas since he was an officer)That is where all the weird questions start rolling around in the ol' noggin. Anyhow, there was a recruitment ad on TV that showed an M1 jumping over a sand dune...looks cool. That stunt only works if the WHOLE crew is aware of what is happening. We were sticking out of the turret during maneuvers when we heard the maniacal laughter from the driver. (Not a good sign) The tank goes up, I go up. Tank goes down, I'm still going up (Houston...we have a problem). The only thing that kept me with the tank was the fact that I was holding onto the loader's M240 at the time. When I came down, I actually jammed the mount down so hard that it jammed on the skate ring.(it took a crowbar and a judicious amount of colorful language to fix it). Needless to say, after the incident the driver did not need the intercom to hear our comments once we got stopped.

My TC went on to serve in Iraq, and our unit patch had a lightning bolt on it. Some of the guys convinced the Iraqi troops that they were training that my buddy was the reason the lightning was on the patch...the story has definitely made the rounds in the MSARNG.

Been a while since someone posted in here, so I got one.

I was at an Indiana National Guard drill doing Scorpion challenge with the "pre-Basic" guys two weekends ago. This was an open event and I was invited by an ROTC cadet who is also one of the cadre for the detachment.

Anyway, one of the events they had going was a Humvee ride. They had a four vehicle convoy from A, 2-152 Mech Inf. set up comprising various softtop humvees. The demonstration consisted of going up to a rock quarry that wasn't being worked on that day. Well, the Sergeants did their best to prove what one of those things can do and in the opinion of many they did it too well.

In our group one of the humvees thought he could clear a small mound and ended turning his vehicle into a teeter-totter. I got back and the rest of my squad took their turn.

So while I was waiting for my battle buddy to get back I struck up a conversation with a female who's battle buddy was also in the last convoy (kind of a dumb thing that both of our battle buddies were not with us, but then I would have been in that humvee if I was with him; the other girl had severe back problems and couldn't ride in one). Well this ride took a rather long time and we wondered what was taking them so long. Then we saw a Sergeant running towards the two of us and a couple other Sergeants nearby. He said that one of the Humvees had rolled completely over (a blessing in disguise as if it had stayed on its back, it may very well have crushed everyone inside). Both of our battle buddies were in the humvee and were injured, mine with a pulled arm, the female with a minor concussion. At the same time, the female's twelve-year old daughter was also in the humvee and was injured with large bruises on her arm and leg. Her other two daughters were in one of the other humvees and saw the whole thing happen. We were never told the extent of the injuries of the Sergeant but I can guarantee he was in need of a new butt the next day trying to explain why the humvee he signed for in the morning came back that evening a total write-off.

Jeff

Many moons ago when I was a member of the Army National Guard(field artillery, SP), we were in the field and the gun was being set up (laid). I was fresh out of AIT and was told to back the M548 up to the gun. I tried to tell them I wasn't qualified but being used to doing as I was told, I jumped in and started backing it up. I was told to stop and I hit the brakes. Now if anyone knows anything about the M548 the bakes are in the steering "sticks" and not on the floor. So, yes I hit the gas and smacked right into the M109. There was an active duty Major inside evaluating and he climbed out and just said "fine time to be F***ing up" After they pried my hands off the steering (I had just seen my pay checks and my short guard career pass before my eyes.) we looked at the damage. I bent the rear door of the cargo carrier and took out a rifle. The howitzer didn't even budge. My punishment? I became the permanent driver of the M548 for our gun section and that was it.

the sad part first: Whilst serving as a musician for 6 years in an armed forces which has never went to war, I have had to play funerals for many young men who needlessly died in training accidents. The saddest was this 19 year old kid who was a tank commander who got crushed when he went racing up a hill and his tank rolled over. Every funeral was heart breaking, you see the family of the deceased, their parents, their wives and their children. It was the part of my work that I never complaint about.

funny bits: I guess was a bit suicidal when I told a Lt Col once if the band could turn up 2 hours later since we didn't want to 'hurry up and wait for 4 hours before we started playing' I was only a Corporal then. My Sergeant Major almost had a heart attack when I reported back. Colonel said 'yeah, ok, that's sensible'

i was manning the music broadcast station for a big local show at the stadium. it was split second stuff, as it was also fed to regional tv. I ignored comms check from ops command. (how was I to know? I was just a dumb musician, didn't understand the signals stuff) Full colonel gets pissed off and calls in directly. My reply: wait! I'm busy! result: got a recommendation letter from same colonel for keeping my cool under stress.

there are many more stories but I thought I's share mine since it comes from a very different angle.

On exercise in Sennelager in 1990, both my 2IC and myself got medevacked with lower limb injuries and got sent back to echelon. Got examined and got chits forbidding practically anything. We knew we'd get stuffed with some crap duty so we decided to stowaway in the back of our CQMS's four tonner to get back out to the field. Imagine their surprise when they found me and JJ asleep in the back when they unloaded all the kit...LOL. It got worse...Our CSM refused to let us rejoin our platoon, took all our ammo off us bar 5 rounds and told us to defend the FFR(land Rover fitted for radio) which was 500m behind the Coy positions. This was in the afternoon. Because we were bored we dug a two man fire trench which was an absolute pearler. OHP, fire bays etc. We returfed and it was almost invisible unless we poked our heads up. We decided as we weren't being allowed to play anymore, and the trench was finished we'd do some tangle foot. We found a load of MILAN wire lying about and strung it all sorts of heights around our pos and settled down. We got the Coy Commander, CSM, CQMS. our Lt, the padre and best of all...THE COLONEL...LMFAO. The only person we didn't get was our platoon sergeant as he didn't trust us without a responsible adult to supervise us. I never realise padres swore! He went ballistic so we hid till he'd gone! LOL

Sennelager pt2....Bored and hungry later that night we decided to have a look in the Land Rovers trailer to see if there was any food. No grub but joy of joys piles of ammo! We filled up our smocks with blank, T-Bangs and smoke grenades and pinched a few shmoolies as well. Next morning we were stood to when I suggested we have a brew.JJ reckoned we'd get bumped but I pointed out that as we were behind the posn nothing was going to come near us.Famous last words. Some muppet had moved the enemies attack signs during the night to cause confusion.Cue bodies coming through the wood..."JJ they're not our blokes". All hell broke loose. They'd only attacked our Coy from the rear because they were going the wrong way. We expended all our ammo, fired the shmoolies at them like LAW's(looked really cool albeit dangerous...hehehe) as they were about to overrun us I dipped back down in the trench and went through the motions of calling in a fire mission with their DS standing on the lip of my trench as they came racing through. He called them to a stop and told them they were dead. They were not happy bunnies when they realised what I'd done. Neither was our company as it turned out my theoretical barrage had taken out the enemies lead company(even though they were in the wrong place). I got a bollocking off my Lt for calling fire in on my own posn and the CSM went berserk when he realised me and JJ had used a good portion of the ammo for the brigade exercise. The OC thought it was quite funny when he sent for us and said posthumous exercise VC's for the both of us.To get rid of us they sent us off to a medical unit as non duff casualties and I ended up falling into a ditch in the dark and tore the ligaments in my ankle on top of the ones in my knee. Next morning I woke up at a field hospital minus my bergan, webbing and rifle.Same with JJ.Kit one way...us the other.So we ended up sitting at the side of the hospital, everyone ignoring us so bunged our berets on. 10 mins later we're approached by their colonel who demanded to know why we hadn't sprung to attention etc and why we were there. I explained we were both non-duff casualties and my predicament.Off he goes. 5 mins later he comes back with two gleaming mess tins overflowing with breakfast. What a geezer!Gave us his mess tins and about 7 peoples worth of breakfast!Only Rupert I ever met that I liked!

Just remembered another one...Same exercise before I got broken :-) . We were doing a battalion heli lift from Haltern to Sennelager and as company scout I had to guide them into the battalion defensive position so I got flown in early. I'd been off done my recce, knew exactly where to go so went back to the LZ. They weren't due for another 2 hrs I so asked our Coy 2IC who I'd flown in with if it was okay to nip off for a crap as I'd not been for two days and I could feel a torpedo in the tube after eating a comp curry the previous night. He said okay and off I went.Now the Germans are funny about crapping in the field and had brought portaloos in so it was a releif to sit on a proper loo.While in deep contemplation I could hear the sound of helos but ignored it thinking it wasn't that important. When I go back to the LZ everyones gone! They'd come in early! Took me 30 mins to find my Coy and then I had to apologise for not being there because I'd gone for a crap!

The M151A2 was notoriously top heavy and it took very little to tip one over on its side or on its back. The jeep, for an MP, was the quickest route to an Article 15. MPs always seem to have too much time on their hands and if they found themselves in the wilds of North Fort at Ft.Polk, La. it never took long for them to sneak out onto the range roads and goat paths to put their patrol vehicle through its paces. As expected, this exercise usually resulted in a dumped jeep. Because of this, to this day, I'm convinced that the choice to mount an M60 in the jeeps was not based out of military neccessity, rather it was foresight and that its presence would save the lives of many MP Corps newbies. In 1983 Ft.Polk and the 5th MP Co found itself under attack by suicidal armadillos. The majority of jeep roll-overs were attributed to the phantom armadillo who laid in wait for a hapless MP along the road between North and South Fort.

I myself came pretty close while on an FTX/ river crossing. I was pulling one of those trailers that made the jeep even that much more unstable and as I rounded a curve on a gravel road (too fast) the trailer fishtailed and in the process spun it and the jeep 180 degrees. As I slid into the road cut-out, the jeep began come up onto two wheels. Call it luck, but the jeep hung there for a few seconds (felt like an hour) and then dropped back onto all four wheels. During that moment of suspended animation, I began working on my description of the phantom armadillo. Thankfully, I never had to use it.

Let's see there is so many heres two:
I was stationed in baumholder germany and while conducting a single team mission my sergeant gave me a grid that appeared to be just on the other side of some trees. Well I found a opening I thought I could cut through the trees in my M1025. well it turned out to be where a bradley fighting vehicle had made his own path as well and I ended up approx. 2 feet off the ground supported by bushes and small trees (2inches or less) and the truck was overheating by the effort it gave to climb the trees in the first place. After calling half my company to point and stare the motorpool sergeant managed to pull me out of the brush at the other side I found Out that I was still one KM away from what I thought was just over the trees.

Also In germany, I recieved a call from my desk sergeant to respond to the on post high school to assist the shift sup. Upon arrival I ran eagerly into the school to help those who need it. I found I rushed head on into an antrax scare inside the school. Thank god I had all my antrax shots. but I think the greatest thrill for the community is when a brave on duty military police officer had to strip down to his underwear in the front parking lot of the high school to go through decon!!

Here's a few good ones:

1) While on a M203 range an E5, who barely knew which end the grenade came out, preceded to load the weapon, turn the safety off, and point a loaded 40mm grenade launcher square at my chest. Needless to say he was relieved of his weapon, in most forceful way.

2) During one of my units last M110A2 shoots, we had a new FDO in the M577 who had trouble with computations. A fire mission came in from our own FO's, he recorded, plotted, and sent the mission down to the gun line, we shot the mission 3 guns, 7 rounds each. 15 of which landed within 75 meters from the FO who called in the mission. By the grace of God no one got hit. But they did have a ton shrapnel at the end of that drill. That FDO soon became a transportation officer.

3) This one is a personal favorite of my dad. While at AT in 1982 at Ft. Sill OK, we drew all our tracked vehicles from the UTES. One of the Gun sections had a M548 Carrier get lost, this ended up being a small mercy, the driver and a driver started to smell smoke, they soon reaized the engine compartment was on fire. They both unassed the carrier, and within 45 seconds the carrier went up. Both tracks, intact with road wheels were blown about 100 meters from each side of the carrier. There was a 9 foot crater left in the road, the Ma deuce was thrown over 1 mile from the site. Yet the ammo trailer it was towing was untouched?!?!?!

Good stuff

Those are pretty good, Randy.

Jeff

Not to many sea stories here, I can change that!
Several mis-haps occurred on the Carl Vinson when I was aboard, but I only saw two first hands and committed one myself.
1
While in the Bering Sea or near the weather was a bit rough. Four inches of snow on the flight deck, frozen pad eyes and yes water over the bow at times. I was on my way through hanger bay three when the number 4 elevator (aft portside) was being lowered.
The swell being incredibly tall I thought I’d hang out for a look, I wasn’t disappointed. Just before it reached hanger level a swell caught it and swept 8 guys overboard, snapped a few tie down chains and put salt water in the cockpits. The sh-60’s got em back real quick I don’t recall exactly how long but I was impressed. The bad news other than one guy losing his spleen and the salt water in the cockpits was that the elevator was broke. They managed to get it into the up position so we could recover aircraft, but that was it- we made the rest of the cruse with a broken elevator.
2
The flight deck is a dangerous place, you have to keep you head on a swivel and maintain a high level of situational awareness 99 percent of the accidents are the victims own stupid fault- hard lessons and graphic examples. But it is way different when there is an accident and the victim bears no responsibility. A couple of months before the end of my last cruise I was on the flight deck arming our planes for launch (pulling the safety pins last minute. The plane I was on was just forward of the island and planes were launching off the angle deck (cat 3&4). While waiting our turn an A-6 was on the out board catipult and an A-7 was on the inboard. The A-7 failed its final flight surface control checks with a hydraulic leak and was being taxied off the cat. The yellow shirt directing the A-7 was not paying attention to where he was pointing the exhaust. As the ship healed to port with the swell, the pilot had to increase power to maintain forward movement His exhaust was aimed at the final checker of the A-6 that was now at full throttle for launch. He flapped in the breeze for a moment before being blown into the A-6’s exhaust the slammed into the jet blast deflector and up and over the side. His body was recovered before the man overboard muster was complete. Safety stand down for 24 hrs then back to business.

Night recovery and I am on the deck to safe bomb racks- no weapons this flight. The aircraft is going to be spotted aft of the island but to get there I have to cross the weapons safeing area. As armed planes return they are turned 90 degrees and taxied out of the landing area where the deck fore and aft is blocked by two lines of ordnance men until the weapon safeing pins are in. Well I was tired and fatigued and perhaps it was my first hallucination, but I thought that they were giving the all clear signal, I even thought that others were crossing with me. The Air boss radioed that I was to be brought before him. My feet never touched the deck as I was whisked by an escort of four to the 06 level of the island. I was kicked off the deck for 24 hrs- he should have sent me to medical to have my head checked.

Others incidents that I didn’t witness first hand but happened while I was aboard.
In my squadron! In my shop! The only explosive incident I ever heard of while I was in!
My soon to be shop supervisor, latter to be OCS aviation candidate failed to check the breaches of the bomb racks when doing a daily circuit test. He electrically grounded the plane, applied ground power, and bypassed the weight on wheels switch, through the select Jettison switch and boom! Blew the ejector foot into the concrete, lucky the station was empty the others had drop tanks and jamming pods! The unused check list was in the cad bag around his neck!

An ordnance chief had an A-6 run over his leg foot to hip when he was dreaming the bomb racks while the plane was being towed. If I am not mistaken an A-6 weighs 56k lbs
And with the throw of naval landing gear he was pinned for nearly twenty minuets while they jacked it off of him.
A guy gut sucked up into an A-6’s intake after he put the launch bar into the shuttle and was backing out. It spit him out when his flash light broke the compressor blades. I also saw a video of this on another carrier during desert storm. The difference an inch makes is incredible. I heard that his eyes and ears were damaged from the vacuum. They should show this to these guys as part of their training.
Another was a guy who lost his foot when he stepped in a puddle of liquid oxygen. I don’t know the details of exactly how it removed his foot but the puddle was reported as having been transported to the scene in the angle iron of the LOX bottles frame. You’re supposed to wipe those things down before and after filling are you not?
Finally this didn’t happen aboard my ship or even to a sailor. While we were at NAS Fallon NV a civilian was up in a cherry picker, changing a light bulb in the hanger we were in. He didn’t turn off the power fist. He didn’t go home.

Ok i am only thirteen but i did have a grampa and he was in world war two when he got discharged he got a book to look at when he got older about wut the platoon did in one of the chapters it says that they were at a camp in germany and they were all at mess hall and two little german boys were playing with the platoons mortor ammutition and they started on fire fortunatly there were no casulteis exept the german boys who i am sad to say did not make it

Tim