[The KG9 Kid]

I'd already learned a few weeks back from some scuttlebutt that the cause of the accident were new Marines on their first night fire exercise that got confused switching between illumination and HE missions, and they double-stacked a round while the gun was in manual trigger mode and the HE round's fuse was set to impact detonation.

They'd evidently dropped in an impact-fused HE round, it didn't fire (as expected) because the gun was set to only fire when manually triggered. They called rounds complete, then later went on to the illumination mission while the unfired HE round was still in the tube. When the dropped the illum round, it didn't fire, so the gunner pulled the trigger...

[The KG9 Kid]

Thread from March:

7 Marines killed during explosion at Nevada's Hawthorne Army Depot

[txnativegop]

May the families of these Marines find solace for the loss they have experienced.

Rest in Peace Marines

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

I thought Harry Reid already confirmed that this was caused by lack of funding.

Just like the tornado in OK and the collapsed bridge in WA.

[bboop]

Oh, isn’t that too bad.

[ken5050]

Three careers down the crapper..can't tell from the article if it WAS indeed a lack of proper training, or rather a case of military circular reasoning..simply because the incident occurred, it must therefore be due to improper training/supervision, ( and someone must take the blame for the 7 tragic deaths...IOW..accidents can never just happen..

[ltc8k6]

I was under the impression that fuses aren’t actually set until the round leaves the tube.

[Born to Conserve]

Seem like a mistake that is too easy to make. I’d call that a system designer failure, not an operator failure.

[em2vn]

I learned as a sailor going through weapons training at Camp Pendleton in the late 60s just how human error can occur.
A Navy Ensign though a mortar round would work just fine if it was dropped into a mortar tube with the fins up.
The Ensign rolled a good distance after the Marine Sergeant running the drill slapped him on the side of the head while grabbing the round.