Four Marines killed in accident at California base

AP via Kingsport TN Times News ^ | November 12, 2013

[don-o]

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Four Marines were killed Wednesday during an operation to clear a range of unexploded ordnance at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, a Marine official said.

[don-o]

This makes me angry.

[Ghost of SVR4]

Depends on which range at Pendleton. When I was there, a few ranges were simply off limits. Others had to be swept periodically. Its sad, but being a Marine stateside does not guarantee getting your dd-214 unscathed.

[don-o]

Huh? The articles says the Marines were on duty, clearing unexploded ordnance. Did you have a point?

Somebody has screwed the pooch at Pendleton (again) and four Marines are dead. I realize accidents happen, but, I am suspicious that Obama’s hollowing out of our military is going to result in more and more of this.

I have no evidence, beyong my gut.

[Rappini]

Sounds like a good call to me.

[BBell]

I am waiting for details. The 4 Marines were EOD. My father was an EOD diver with gold wings in the Navy. The policy when he was in was to blow in place. There is no reason to risk your life defusing something on a firing range.

[Mouton]

I agree with that comment. Why defuse, blow the sucker up from a distance. Sadly four good Marines blow to bits over some a hole’s stupid plan.

[antidisestablishment]

You still have to clean up the range at some point and you can't simply cover the entire range with C4 and hope. I worked the ranges on a couple of bases and we periodically cleared the hot ranges. It was always dangerous as hell, because you really never know what's there. Even target vehicles would be so saturated with UXOs, we had to burn them to the ground and they were still never considered safe.

Here is the EOD Wall.

[DCBryan1]

Probably on the mortar range. We lost a raven on that range and were told to never retreive it because we’d lose a half dozen guys to old ordanance. Apparently the Vietnam era 81mm will go boom with just a little jostle.

[Ghost of SVR4]

Then I assume it was EOD or Marines with more advanced training. It sucks but the Marines is not a place that you can count on receiving a DD214. Before and after the first gulf war my company lost guys when “on duty” and not deployed. Hell, I almost got run over by an AMTRAC on base (even as loud as those things are, had no clue it was there) and only kept my head because my section leader yelled for me to duck another time when a Cobra was in bound and I almost ate a skid. The Corps is a dangerous place to work.