-Caveat Lector- A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"
/A -Cui Bono?-
Richard Sampson wrote:
http://www.accesswaco.com/auto/feed/news/local/2000/01/28/949107772.08003.4415.0429.html
Artillery shells pound Coryell County ranch
A reservist unit (Hotel Battery, 3rd Battalion, 14th Marines, 4th Mar Div.,
Richmond) did the same thing back in the summer of 1990. Several phosphorus
rounds in a 'fire for effect' training exercise hit a farm, totally melted
a tractor, burned much of the crops, and were working their way towards the
farmer's house before the forward observers realized that the rounds were
*way* off target and called for a cease fire. Luckily no one on the farm
was hurt. What happened was that there was a misunderstanding in the
communications from the 'Fire Direction Control' (FDC) to the artillery
gunners, and the wrong 'color' bags of powder were loaded into the guns.
If I'm not mistaken, the two types of powder bags Marine artillery uses
are 'white' and 'green' -- and one is a lot more powerful then the other.
Instead of say, three 'white' bags, three 'green' bags were used (or visa
versa), sending the rounds not merely off the range, but miles off the base
into the farmer's field. Since the rounds had timed fuses, they burst in
the air over the farmer's field, sending burning phosphorus all over the
place. Further, burning phosphorus is almost impossible to put out, which
is why it's in these rounds in the first place, whereby making the damage
that much more serious. From what I heard, the fire department had a hell
of a time trying to save what was left of the farm. It even made the
national news that night.
For safety reasons, after the guns are loaded, but before any rounds are
fired, a gunner visually signals to the XO and other officers in the 'pit'
the color and number of bags loaded into the guns, and the officer gives
the go ahead to send the rounds down range; but for some reason nobody
noticed the mistake. Also, the FDC has a computer that compiles the data
sent by the forward observers and tells the FDC everything they need to
know, including the exact time it takes for the rounds to leave the guns
until they hit their target -- the 'splash' time. In fact, someone recently
posted on CTRL that this data for guiding artillery rounds is so important
to the 'grunches' and 'territorial gangsters' called 'gubbmint' that
(according to Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, or R. Buckminster Fuller, I believe,
perhaps someone else) it's one of the main reasons why the first computers
were ever built. (On second thought, it's possible I saw it on one of those
war shows always playing on The Learning Channel; I'm not sure where I
heard it -- but I am sure that I recently heard it somewhere).
Basically what happens is that a forward observer calls in a grid for a
target to the FDC. The FDC plots the data and sends it to the gunners, who
fire a round. Shortly after the round is fired, the radio operator in the
FDC notifies the forward observers a second or two before 'splash' to give
a heads up that the round is about to hit; the forward observer then pops
his head up, watches the target and sends back correction data ('drop',
'add', 'left', or 'right') to the FDC. Thus, when the forward observer kept
getting calls for 'splash' from the FDC and no rounds were hitting
*anywhere* on the firing range, something was obviously amiss. By the
time 'cease fire' was called, it was too late and the farm was in ruins.
Needless to say, several of the battery's officers were discharged under
other then honorable conditions; although the battery was still deployed in
the Gulf 'conflict' that winter and was decorated for their performance in
making every Iraqi troop position they encountered look like that poor
farmer's farm.
'Brainfart' mistakes like this sometimes happen; no conspiracy here, IMO.
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