Horseplay kills says Army
Tman and Country Singer sent us a link to a Stars & Stripes article reprinted from The News Tribune about how two fobbits were playing with what the S & S says was a ” light anti-tank weapon” when it was fired and struck one in the chest;
Army officials initially called Turner’s death a “training accident,” but now are bringing charges of manslaughter against Spc. Francisco Perez, who’s accused of firing a rocket at Turner inside their forward base at Combat Outpost Kherwar in Afghanistan’s Logar province.
Perez allegedly killed Turner, 21, on Jan. 11 with a light anti-tank weapon, a shoulder-fired rocket launcher designed for use against armored vehicles and other hardened targets. The weapon did not detonate, but was fired at close range and pierced Turner’s upper chest, according to Turner’s family and Army charging documents.
Perez’s assignment called on him to store weapons as soldiers returned to their base from missions. Witness reports in documents reviewed by Turner’s mother, Charlotte Cox-Turner, suggest Perez had been scolded more than once for “horseplay” with weapons in his charge.
I don’t know what corrective measures can be taken to prevent privates from firing rockets at each other in a storage facility. Some things are just inevitable, I suppose. I’ve seen them poke each other with atropine injectors playing stupid games. But, rockets, that’s a whole ‘nother thing.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Knifey-Spoony taken to a whole other level.
Yeah, young guys with government issued toys will do stupid things when bored.
During Desert Shield/Storm when Marines got in a world of trouble for shooting camels with TOW/LAW weapons. (Can’t find a link but I remember reading about an Article 15 or some such)
Camels are a scourge and should be wiped from the face of the earth.
Probably a Cat IV dumbbell – one of McNamara’s Project 100,000 era kids.
Also, nothing like a “scolding” for horseplay with weapons – really? Time in the stockade and then a big chicken dinner would be more appropriate.
Just when I think I have heard it all.
Man oh man, you hear these kinds of new levels of stupid and you wonder how we put a guy on the moon sometimes…never mind the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor, how about the stupidity gap?
Jonn, if you recall just prior to the ground war during Desert Storm our rifle platoons had to take turns providing security for the dumbasses in the Support Battalion because of so many accidental discharges. Not uncommon at all among REMFs but I have say a rocket is a new one.
Yeah, COB6 one of those accidental discharges was near my bunk on the other side of the wall from the clearing barrel in the port. Of course, The funniest one was the POG who couldn’t resist the “Push to test” button on the M8 chemical alarm on the first day of Desert Storm.
Reminds me of what my Senior Drill Sergeant told me when I was a new DS…
“Stick a Private in a padded cell with 3 ball bearings and come back in an hour. He will have eaten one, broke one and lost the other”
Lot of truth in that
I have to say I’ve never heard of a ND incident involving an AT weapon before.
If the allegation that this idiot has engaged in weapons horseplay before is true, I’d guess he’s toast. And I’d also guess that some of his chain-of-command will also have a helluva lot of explaining to do.
If I got in trouble every time I shoved an AT-4 in someone’s face while I was in the military then I never would have left the rank of E-1.
Never got to play with those toys. I feel so left out.
It must be the “it’s only/just like a video game — no one really gets hurt” syndrome.
How do retards like this make it through Basic Training?
CI–they’re supervised closely, that’s how.
Like pilots: The dangerous ones aren’t the really new ones or the old ones…it’s the ones who have just enough time in the aircraft (about 300-500 hours) to think they know what they are doing and what the limits *really* are, and have just made pilot-in-command and don’t have anyone more mature looking over their shoulder.
Those are the ones that try to push over Joshua trees at NTC with an OH-58C. I heard once. Not me, when I was a lieutenant. Really.
#1 and #2
We hit one with with 120mm HEAT round once. The gunner engaged a “mover” at night on the range during a table 12….that was before he was told there are no movers on a table 12…not much camel left…
Unfortunately, they didn’t both succumb to Darwinism which means Perez will still likely be able to reproduce. I don’t know why but this reminds me of when an MP died while I was in Bosnia because he and another were playing Russian Roulette with a 9mm…never been able to figure that one out
I don’t know what to say, some people are stupid. The sad thing is I’ve seen more AD’s in the law enforcement world than in the military. And the truly sad thing about that is the amount of time I’ve spent in the law enforcement world tied to a desk, trying to drive a confession out of a spreadsheet.
In any case, DON’T PLAY WITH FUCKING ROCKETS, you DUMBASSES! There should be a warning label.
Uhmmm. Missed out on something in my military career. The few times we were actually allowed to be armed we did NOT ponder using them like toys. Dang. There are plenty of ways that true accidents can occur without stupid crap like this.
Yeah, if this was not the first time, let us hope that more than Perez will face serious charges.
Chip, I know a Marine who got a Bronze Star/Combat V as a TOW gunner. He bagged five Iraqi tanks and a water buffalo (the animal, not the H2O-carrying trailer).
When he read the citation and compared it to his personal diary…
…he found that the medal was for the water buffalo…
@14 First guy always lost eh? It would seem in that game it’s best to go second…
As an aside, in 1978 at Ft. Benning we were told that the standard issue jeep had a different spring return rate than your civilian model, consequently it had a different rollover quotient than a civilian model. There was even a nice little movie with outriggers on the jeep to prove the point.
Of course we had to have one idiot try and disprove it…it did not turn out well for him.
The sad thing is, this is not the first time this has happened. I recall when we first got to Baghdad there was one of those “look what these dumbasses did, don’t be a dumbass” safety notices hanging in the TOC concerning a couple of Marines that had fired a SMAW inside their CHU.
This is all to reminiscient of the nonsensical “Hey, check this out!” Famous last words. It’s bad enough that our AFG partners are killing our troops over there, now it seems there is dumb-assery in killing each other. Senseless.
In DS we were severely and publically warned about what would happen if any of us had an ND-immediate loss of rank was the first punishment.
So a couple weeks later, one of our Gunnies (not exactly a brain child this one) was headed into a command center back in Al Jubail. When he got there, he took his Beretta out to clear it into the fire barrel as was the mandate for anyone going in, so he FIRST pulled the slide back, THEN took out the magazine, and then shit himself when the damned thing actually fired.
Of course, the communicated punishment wasn’t given to him as it would any one of the rest of us, but he didn’t have to give a safety lecture to the entire batallion-in formation, snickering the whole time 🙂
Dang…the Gunny *did* have to give that lecture above…..my doggone proofreading skills are crap today.
He fought the LAW and the LAW won.
#24–*groan*
#24 ROFLMFAO!!
Actually I was chuckling and gaffawing during the whole thing, but that one sent me over the top. I’m sure the people standing in the Wally World Rx line are questioning my sanity.
How about these guys lol: http://lmn8.us/gBpeeqkb
@24…ba ha ha! THAT was spot on
Good thing that Mk-48’s aren’t man-portable or else some dumbass TM/A-ganger would be dead right now.
Can someone clue me in to what ND stands for? I understand AD for accidental discharge, and I don’t think they are referring to North Dakota.
Dumb A$$ needs to be hung up by his nuts and left to die.
@30: negligent discharge. Probably a more accurate descriptor for most of them.
We heard that an infantry 1SG and captain we’d been attached to in Afghanistan in 2006 were later relieved for an AT4 going off in a barracks (again without detonating).
Been going on forever. Buddy of mine has his femur broken and testicle shot off (Vietnam) when another member of his squad reverse cleared a 1911A1. Another buddy served a couple of tours in Kosovo and referred to clearing barrels as “Field Grade Removal Devices” as Majors and above who ND’ed were taken away by the Black Chinook.
What about that VC shell that dug a hole and buried itself and didn’t go off, up at Khe Sanh?
If I’m going to be honest, I have to admit that stuff like this is one of the reasons I signed up for an REMF MOS (medical lab tech) when I enlisted.
I don’t think I’d ever do something this boneheaded, but I was afraid that I’d accidentally do something stupid and get someone hurt or killed.
There is stupid, stoopid, and stoopid beyond comprehension.
I had a Sergeant who told us every day what fuck-ups we were and what a fantabulous soldier he was. One day,coming off duty, he walked up to the clearing barrel, pointed his 1911 in the general vicinity of the barrel and shot himself in the foot. Seems he’d violated policy and put one in the pipe before going on town patrol. Then promptly forgot he’d put one in the pipe. He never returned to the unit. I often wonder what outfit ended up with that stellar example of soldiering.
Talked to a buddy who knows about this one tonight. The LAW was fired indoors, and i guess the mess from the backblast was considerable. Not sure if they also had to bring in EOD to remove the round from the body.
#11 Very carefully.
While I was deployed to Baghdad in ’08 as an MP anytime anyone in our battalion sized task force had an ND we had to gather as a platoon for an emergency weapons clearing procedure review. ALL our goddamn weapons, M9 thru Mk 19. Didn’t matter what time it was or anything and the best part was my company wasn’t even on the same FOB as the rest of the TF. Also I’m from ND, North Dakota so trips me up a bit to read ND in the article.
I remember at PI as a recruit they gave us a graphic picture show of what the marine corps weapons do to the human body. That was enough for me to follow the safty guide lines. I’m sure having to live with the fact he kill someone out of gross negligence and stupidity are a worse punishment than could be handed out by the UCMJ.
Last time I was out in Iraq a couple of Pathfinders accidentally fired an AT-4 in their BHUT. Surprisingly it went down into the floor and the overpressure wave failed to kill any in the room.
Yes, they were allowed to keep weapons in their rooms for rapid movement or something like that. Evidentally not wise to PMCS one standing up against a wall a little too hard.
And I would take an MRE box and gently poke it with an atropine needle in front of a class outside. Amazing how fast that stuff shoots out of that needle. And yes, the sound it made punching through the cardboard woke them all right the hell up.
None of my guys used their NBC mask as a pillow.
When I was young and stupid … ok guys (I’ll beat you to it) … now I am old and stupid, I threw an expended OBA canister over the side, while inport, in oily water.
This is what happended (well kind of):
Ok, I’ve read about NDs for a while now (stories from the sandbox) and I’m curious: just what are the steps involved? Is it something like: -remove magazine, -un-chamber round, -dry-fire weapon into barrel to test?
MCP0, that “Atomic Bomb Underwater Test” shot had me right back in high school chemistry class, when one of us (who shall remain nameless) put potassium nitrate into the same test tube with….well, never mind.
I think the stupidest thing we ever did was going “4-wheeling” on a “mule” we stole from the supply guys while out at the Stumps. The first hill we tried to climb, the thing rolled and I think it was Segal who wound up with a broken arm! Since I was just a young, impressionable L/Cpl I just got yelled, the mastermind, Sgt. Beauchamp REALLY got yelled at. I think he wound up being Sgt of the Guard every third day for a couple of weeks!? Yeah, I know, pretty lame.
On both of my Middle East tours, I’ve seen characters like that, and I still expect to see them receiving Darwin Awards any day now…..
After the friendly grenade accident, on the hangar deck. I am laying on a 2×12 repairing fuel cells. One of the the battilon’s platloons is holding a inspection directly across from me and my helo. a staff NCO has ND.At that point ,I had no doubt in my mind those jokers were out to finish me off. It’s funny to me now but then. Joe
A