Report on the exploded mortar that led to Marine deaths
TMB sends us a link to the Stars & Stripes which explains the accident that took seven Marine’s lives last year and cost some the battalion’s officers their jobs in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines;
The investigation determined that insufficient training and preparation in the 60 mm mortar weapons system used in the exercise was partly to blame. The report also cites improper mortar gunnery commands and firing procedures, a “perceived sense of urgency” and haste, and a lack of supervision of the mortar section in the months before and during the deadly training exercise, the newspaper said.
Because of the terrain, the Marines at Hawthorne the night of the blast were grouped tightly around two mortar tubes. The explosion occurred when a Marine inserted a second round into a mortar tube, detonating the round already in it and shooting out the half-loaded round, the website reported, citing the investigation’s findings.
It’s a dangerous job whether someone is shooting at you or not.
Category: Marine Corps
I read the article and the comments. I have no experience with mortars. Did the first round hang-fire then they dropped a second round on top of that one?
The 60MM mortar can be either drop fired (drop the round in and the round hits the firing pin and sets of charges) or it can be fired by trigger. You would use a selector switch to retract the firing pin, drop the round in and when ready squeeze trigger mechanism to engage the firing pin.
What I am hearing is they are blaming it on the transition from 81MM to 60MM because the 81MM only has the drop and fire meathod available… but that to me is bogus because on the 81MM the Asst Gunner drops the rounds down that tube, and you know damned well if the round fired off or not. It would be the same with the 60MM, you would hear the round go… but if they were that close together maybe he could have mistaken the sound of the other gun firing for his but that is a stretch.
I have fired the 81MM, 60MM, and 4.2″ Mortar. Accidents do happen, but this one sounds like a total lack of training led up to it. Not a case of a bad round, but a lot of bad decisions and poor training. Each and every one of those mortars is different, and in significant ways.
That said I have witnessed shit go wrong and it not being the crews fault, but a bad lot of proximity fuzes. Nothing like doing a Final Protective Fire, and having the rounds going off in air close enough that you turn into a gopher pretty damned quick.
I am old enough to remember the old “Mortar” tracks. The M106. I saw what happens when you are careless disposing of the charges you remove. Aluminum turns to slag at that temperature. Fortunately no one was killed but write off one track and mortar!
I did 81 and 4.2. I still can’t understand why there was so many people around the tubes in a live fire exercise, even in training. We had the basic crew with maybe a couple of instructors. Also since it was training why the tubes were so close. Back in the day the range firing points for mortars were huge because it was used by multiple types of weapons, each with built in safety zones between tubes so an accident on one would in theory not affect the others. Seen two short rounds but they did not rotate enough to arm. One due bad charges and one to a defective tube.
@4… we were always a minimum of 35 meters apart on the 81’s. They are claiming terrain prevented them from being that far apart, but to me that is just BS. What kind of range were they on that they could not have 2 60MM the minimum safe distance away from one another?
I can see why folks were releived.
May those Marines lost Rest in Peace.
I was an 81mm weapons platoon leader during my less-than-stellar career.
The most scared I ever was, was when I removed a dud WP round from one of our tubes. I kept picturing in my mind my missing the round as it slid out of the tube and me being turned into a crispy critter.
Good times. Good times.
@6. Yep. If ever there was a thread at TAH entitled ‘Close Calls,’ it would probably be the longest thread in the blog’s history.
During my short enlisted MOS 11C10 career, I witnessed just one four-deuce misfire/hangfire during a night shoot at Schofield Barracks Area X. Glad us junior enlisteds were ordered to make for the safety area while the Safety NCOs/NCOIC carefully tilted the tube and let the bad round gently slide out into their hands; they didn’t have to tell me twice to get the f-k out of the immediate area.
I wasn’t as lucky a few months later when at the end of another nightfire, I placed my left hand in the wrong place as we were loading the 4.2 in. tube into the gama goat, and the super-heavy firing-pin end of the tube mashed over my left middle finger and flayed it open from end to end. They took me to the Schofield ER, but they couldn’t do anything for me, and had me jeeped over to Tripler Army Hospital, where I spent a few deligtful hours at the Tripler ER as they sewed my mashed finger back together again. As MAJ Mike said, good times, good times…
Imo, this has the smell of the platoon sgt designing a situation “like we did it in the war”. Those often end bad and sad.
From what I read from before it was a shoot at Fallon, Nevada in support of pilot training. The focus of the training was the Pilots and FACS not the Mortar Platoon. The mortars are firing to mark targets and suppress Anti Aircraft positions. Its basically suppress and Mark. The FAC/FO has one tube suppress with HE while one fires WP to mark the target. The key to the success of the training is to have the WP impact in time for the FAC and Pilot to see it and make adjustments to drop on target. Training usually consists of setting up 4-6 minute time on target missions. I have done several of these shoots as an FDC ops chief with 11th Marines and a few as an 81MM mortar Plt Sgt. One thing about them is that it’s usually a small section or unit sent out to do it, a platoon. You are chopped to the Air Wing for the training and they pretty much touch bases and leave you to your own designs. So what happens is you have a 1st Lt and a SSgt Present. No company or Bn commander or staff around. When I went we went “admin” when we weren’t actually firing or handling ammo. Soft covers, no flack jackets, helmets etc. We even BBQed chicken behind the gunline ( at a safe distance of course. We didn’t carry personal weapons or packs. Every night ( or actually about 1500) we packed up and went back, cleaned the tubes and slept in the barracks. What I’m getting at is that it was a very lax atmosphere. Without a common sense leader, a unit could start getting sloppy as far as firing procedures and safety went. A lazy leader would not ensure his Marines were wearing flacks and helmets when firing. He could get away with it because the higher ups would never see it. The firing positions were set up by Air wingers and FACS. Chances are there was no internal comm present so the tubes were close for better control. The ammunition came from… Read more »
Wow, when I was an 11Charlie, we spent 2 months at Ft Polk learning how to fire the 81 and 4.2 inch mortar.
You prepare to fire, hold a round over the tube WITH TWO hands and slide down the side, not over the muzzle.
You hear a “boom” then get the next round. If you don’t hear the “boom” the gunner yells “Hand fire, clear the mutherfucking gun”