The last moments of Specialist Hilda Clayton’s life
Fox News reports that Army has released a series of photos which chronicled the last moments of the life of 22-year-old Specialist Hilda Clayton, an Army Public Affairs photographer, when a mortar tube exploded as she was taking pictures of the firing drill. She was killed along with four Afghans on July 2, 2013.
Since her death, Clayton’s name has since been added to the Defense Information School Hall of Heroes at Fort Meade. The award for the winner of Combat Camera’s annual competition was also named after her
From Stars & Stripes;
Clayton was a member of the Army’s storied combat camera unit, the Fort Meade, Md.-based 55th Signal Company, which has deployed soldiers to front lines across the globe.
She was the first Army combat documentation and production specialist to be killed in Afghanistan.
The unit has named its annual competition the SPC Hilda I. Clayton Best Combat Camera (COMCAM) Competition in her memory.
Her name is also etched into the Hall of Heroes at the Defense Information School in Fort Meade, where she graduated in 2012.
Category: Army News
Was it operator error or just a freak accident?
not that it matters in either case, unless it changed training or combat camera regulations or safety protocol but, maybe it was just a freak act of God.
As has always been said here, training for way can be just as deadly.
From the photographs, it appears that the mortar round detonated inside the tube during the firing sequence.
If we have any mortarmen here on Team TAH, perhaps they could provide some insight into what may have happened.
As with many/most accidents involving arty/mortars, it probably has to do with propellants and charges. If its an 81mm, little bagged charges are attached to the round (the four-deuce I operated as an enlisted kid used honey wax propellant sheets attached to the base). My bet is that a bad/improper propellant charge was attached to the round..
After four years of carrying the 60 I was asked if i would be interested in the FDC job for the 81mm mortars I took the course to understand the M-16 plotting board, passed the tests and took that job.
At Fort Drum I was asked if I’d like to get out of the truck, away from the radio and drop some rounds…I said sure…on my third round it never left the tube, one of the more exciting moments in my life as we cleared the range and I detached the tube from the mount and carried it out to the pit to wait for EOD….
As Jonn likes to remind us, training for war is what we do and it can sometimes be as deadly as the real thing.
My condolences to her family and colleagues and friends….
I was an 11C before I switched to 11B then A. I graduated from the Ft Benning Mortar Leaders Course. Sometimes, dependent on the quality of the round, it just happens. I’ve seen many misfires, but never a tube detonation. It makes me wonder if the round wasn’t tampered with.
Russian 82mm I believe. Could have been any number of things. We had a bad batch of proximity fuses, looked like flak danger close.
Bad round, bad maintenance of tube, pure shit luck…
Training is definitely deadly. This was a very sad event.
RIP Specialist Clayton. May God’s peace be with you and your family.
God bless her and her family.
Experienced several misfires/hangfires of live rounds in mortar tubes when I was an enlisted 11C mortar maggot; none of the rounds exploded in tube, but those were definitely sphincter tightening moments…
It’s weird that both 11C’s thus far have never seen a tube detonation. Misfires, hangfires and short rounds, sure. Im thinking of one other possibility, how good are the Afghans at bore scoping weapons at level 3 maintenance? If a hairline crack developed the overpressure from the propellant charges may have been enough to detonate the fuse. Just thinking here. Either way, tragic.
Since posting earlier message above, the thought of a hairline crack has occurred to me as well. Since I never stepped boot on ground in Afghanistan, I don’t have a clue as to how detailed the ANA are in their inspection/maintenance of basic weapons such as their mortars…
The vast majority of the ANA ARE NOT at all good about inspecting and maintaining equipment, I didn’t have that many personal interactions with them,but the ones I did failed to leave me with a good impression of them. I also heard plenty of war stories from the ETT’s tasked with training them.
I was being sarcastic, I worked with the ANA, ANP as well as their Intel service. No real maintenance program, at least in the times I was there.
Well, I saw their SAW gunners with the barrels stuck six inches in the ground resting on the butt stock – I’m guessing they wouldn’t check the barrel before they fired…not too far of a leap of the imagination to imagine what their mortars go through.
I know when I was in we borescoped dozens of motor tubes in my shop. It also involved a pull-over gauge to check for erosion and a mold of the interior of the base. I personally saw many cracks and tubes just plain worn out.
We had strict criteria, but if there was the slightest doubt, the tube was condemned.
Saw the pics she took as well as the ANA combat camera as well. Definitely heart rending to see.
RIP
Ex-PH2,
There, but for the Grace of God…….
Condolences to the family. Shows that even the “pogues” are in the danger zone.
I’d like to know why she was so close to the spot, but at the same time, shrapnel has a speed that doesn’t drop quickly. Dickie Chappelle was killed by shrapnel from a homemade claymore that blew when the squad leader hit the tripwire.
I know that accidents happen, but this is just too sad.
God rest you well Specialist Clayton.
From the bright orange flame, the fact that others survived, and — for what it’s worth — the official description that the “tube” exploded (and not “the round” exploded), it looks like either an overcharge (too many propellant bags left on the base of the round) or a tube that reached its breaking point.
If the mortar round itself had gone off, I would expect to see:
1 – Dirty black/gray smoke;
2 – Everyone dead.
U.S. gunners keep a log of how many rounds are fired, and when a tube reaches the end of its life, the tube is scrapped. But there is a difference minimal and maximum charges (powder loads) and so the unit has to keep an accurate count of E[ffective] F[ull] C[harge] rounds that have been fired. Afghan recordkeeping probably wasn’t up to Ft. Benning or Camp Geiger standards. Add high temperatures for the propellant (increasing pressure) and a hot and possibly mishandled tube, and the result would be about as depicted.
God Bless SPC Clayton.
Maybe I’m confused – but I understand that she and 4 Afghans were all killed.
The way I’m interpreting that is that a 3-man mortar crew, the photog she was training, and she were all casualties.
It appears that she had her camera on burst – capturing a sequence of photos in rapid sequence. The Afghan photog may have been doing something similar. After the debris hit them the “black smoke” may have appeared.
All speculation on my part, of course.
Would a double feed have caused this
The firing pins are fixed in a mortar, minus the 60mm. The ammo bearer must drop one round at a time into the tube, that round slides down and the primer is engaged by the pin, the propellant is lit, which goes up the tail and ignites the required charges for distance. If you drop a round and it fails to fire it’s a misfire as that initiates certain actions by the gun crew. So a double feed, although not impossible by an untrained crew is highly unlikely by a even remotely trained one.
She ain’t Cav, but I’m betting the Cav guys won’t mind her dropping in for a drink or six.
‘FIDDLERS’ GREEN
Halfway down the trail to Hell,
In a shady meadow green
Are the Souls of all dead troopers camped,
Near a good old-time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddlers’ Green.
Marching past, straight through to Hell
The Infantry are seen.
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marines,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddlers’ Green.
Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene.
No trooper ever gets to Hell
Ere he’s emptied his canteen.
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddlers’ Green.
And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddlers’ Green.’
You would be wrong.
Fidlers Green is for the Cav. She wasn’t all other combat arms are mentioned marching through to hell. She probably went the other direction.
ANA – green on blue.
Am I the only guy wondering about sabotage/tampering and munitions?
Specialist Hilda Clayton: Tremendous sadness by your loss.
I seem to remember an accident in California a while back, maybe even the same timeframe where several Marines were killed and the Corps did the mortar equivalent of grounding the fleet for a while.
Similar issue maybe???
Different weapon systems.
The USMC one, they were firing old rounds trying to get rid of them and one blew in the tube.
With the ANA, who know what caused it. They likely don’t have a good maintenance system to keep their equipment up.
I consulted the Oracle of Mountain View and found an article that says the Marine accident took place in Nevada, the crew dropped a second round into the tube and after investigation they relieved the Battalion CO, Company CO, and the CWO3 that was the battalion weapons officer. Event occurred in 2013.