Marine Corps Celebration
The Marines’ 250th year celebration took place at Camp Pendelton this weekend. Governor Newsom was not pleased.
According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the “unscheduled closure” was implemented out of public safety concerns after it became clear that the Marines’ planned demonstration would send live munitions arching over one of the state’s most heavily traveled corridors. The closure was not part of the original plan; in fact, the U.S. Marines had assured state officials and the public earlier in the week that no highways or transportation routes would be affected.
Governor Gavin Newsom was quick to voice his outrage. In a fiery statement released Saturday and reported by The New York Times, he declared, “This is a profoundly absurd show of force that could put Californians directly in harm’s way.” Newsom went further, lambasting the federal government’s decision to proceed with live-fire exercises over a public freeway as “reckless, disrespectful, and beneath the office the president holds.”
Looks like Newsom failed to determine that the Marines routinely fire over the highways – those howitzers have no problem lofting rounds 15 miles across extended ranges and public highways. According to William Martin, Vice-President Vance’s communications director:
“Gavin Newsom wants people to think this exercise is dangerous,” Martin said, as quoted by The New York Times. “The Marine Corps says it’s an established and safe practice. Newsom wants people to think this is an absurd show of force. The Marine Corps says it’s part of routine training at Camp Pendleton. If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead.”
The event drew a crowd of more than 15,000 Marines, sailors, veterans, and their families, along with top Trump administration officials including Vice President JD Vance—a former enlisted Marine himself—and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Grand Pinnacle Tribune
Interesting that the Marines say they do this routinely, as most installations I have seen will not fire across public roads with traffic present and road closures are common. As it was, no injuries were reported – but one round apparently did come apart prematurely.
The New York Times reported that fragments that fell from the 155mm shell landed on vehicles parked on a ramp on Interstate 5 – a major artery through southern California – which governor Gavin Newsom had ordered closed after learning that military officials had no plans to close the freeway. The Guardian
Obviously not an actual shell detonation, but a bit awkward nonetheless. One would have to say that Newsom actually had a point. Geez, I HATE having to say that.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Marine Corps
Wait. Gavin The Odd closes a highway for safety…..
By posting LEOs -in the direct path- of the claimed danger?
I don’t know about “governors”, but any E-4 would have put the guards, you know, -out- of the potential short round impact / scatter area.
And when one avoids 155mm, that berth you give is wide indeed.
Looks like GtO went fishing for an incident.
How dare the Marines show their force!
a) If the California Governor is upset, it’s obviously a good thing
b) This from the same person who locked down his state in varying degrees of authoritarianism for months/years (whilst supping with the fancy lads unmasked in swanky dining spots). Explain why it was necessary to shut down beaches when it was obvious that the outdoors was your best bet to stay sane and healthy and I’ll give a damn about GN complaining about the Marines making something inconvenient for the locals.
c) Semper Fi MFer. . .
Gavin’s problem:
Please don’t try and apply logic to the Covid responses and measures taken by libs. All you’ll do is raise your BP.
Perhaps we should have sent Ukraine the old training rounds and WE kept the good stuff…..
“The US has sent Ukraine over 3 million 155mm artillery rounds since the 2022 invasion and continues to provide them, along with other aid like rockets and howitzers.”
Eff Gavin!!! He’s butt hurt that Vance is an actual man and veteran while he’s a pussy. Newscum is ONLY doing this to ruin people day because Trump is bringing back patriotism and the belief in American Exceptionalism.
The only thing that blew into us was the ships 3 in 50 AA rounds that were fired from the forward of the island gun tubs and we got all the shit that came from the barrels after the rounds were fired. I still remember the small pieces that blew into my face and irritated my eyes. The ship was always under way when the guns were fired. Guns were on the starboard side and our motor whale boat was on the same side aft of the guns while we did our 4 hour life boat watches
Gavin Newsom isn’t eve worth a squirt of a Private’s piss. Just watch, he’ll piss himself from here on out every time thinking it’ll make him the center of attention, what a cheap stunt!
Just a little ditty I like to trot out for any half assed, phony, shit headed politician who dares to besmirch my beloved Corps…
“You can fuck with St Peter,
You can fuck with St Paul,
But you fuck with ONE Marine—-
And you FUCK WITH US ALL!”
“Interesting that the Marines say they do this routinely, as most installations I have seen will not fire across public roads with traffic present and road closures are common. As it was, no injuries were reported – but one round apparently did come apart prematurely.”
Marine arty routinely fires over the I-5 corridor for amphib assault practice. Theres no other way to integrate fires into amphib work reliably, because of how Camp Pendleton is laid out. Most arty practice, however, is fired inland, away from the corridor.
Keep in mind those round apogee high enough you can technically operate helo flight corridors under their arc in high-angle fires, since the rounds get up to 30000ft or more in altitude during high angle fire, leaving air corridors below the barrage more than wide enough for helos. Fixed-wing was always a no-go, though. Mortars block everything, due to their short range and lower apogee.
With all that in mind, firing over I-5 into the training areas is actually rather safe, since the only real ways to fuck it up are failing to get the right number of charges behind the round or utterly failing to lay the gun properly.
Ol’ Nuisance went looking for a cause to close the I-5 corridor, and a complete fluke failure of a shell gave him a press release.
There is only two ways a 155mm artillery projectile can detonate in midair:
1 – Time Fuse. A mechanical timer, in effect, a very hardened “kitchen timer” that starts ticking when the projective is fired, and detonates the explosive after the [preset] time has expired. It is used to obtain “air bursts” that will spread the splinters over a wide area from an elevated position. It is best used against troops in the open and “soft targets” such as unarmored vehicles, tents, fuel barrels, etc.
2 – Proximity Fuse. A miniature radar transmitter and receiver built into the fuse at the nose of the projectile. When the fuse/projectile approach the ground, the radar waves reflecting back detonate the warhead just above the ground, again, creating an air burst best against soft targets and unarmored vehicles.
Time Fuse being mechanical and not electric, is much, much, cheaper than Proximity Fuse. But Time Fuse requires that the gunner know the time of flight of his projectile so the fuse can be set to detonate at the appropriate time.
In any case, the Marine Corps (that is: the gunners, the Fire Direction Center, and the Ammo Supply Point) will all know exactly what combination of fuse/projectile/ and powder charges were fired, along with exactly the deflection and elevation of each tube.
The “investigation” should have taken all of two~three hours start to finish.
Why do I get a tingling feeling that come to find out, the metal parts that “fell” from the sky aren’t from an errant artillery shell?
My thought also.
A Lie can make it around the world while Truth is still lacing up her shoes.
Or, not from those shells.
One might find them all over an impact area. And no doubt they are easily obtainable from various souvenir hunters in various global conflicts.