Posted on 10/29/2009 11:51:42 AM PDT by lizol
US warship fires at Polish coast in joint exercise
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:02:50 GMT
The guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage An American destroyer has reportedly fired live rounds at the northern Polish coast while disposed of the combat-ready mode it had assumed during joint naval drills.
The 250-crew guided-missile destroyer, USS Ramage, fired three shots at the port city of Gdynia, said spokesman for the Polish Military Gendarmerie, Marcin Wiacek, 'Russia Today' reported on Wednesday.
Crewmembers and locals were being questioned on the incident which, according to preliminary data, caused no human or material losses.
The warship had just partaken in the joint naval exercises with the Polish Navy and was at the dock to 'give its crew time for rest.'
"We will use this time to exchange experiences and hold meetings of experts," spokesman for the 3rd Flotilla of the Polish Navy, Grzegorz Lyko was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.
The American officials have not commented on the matter.
Russia has questioned the alleged intentions behind the visits, which mainly target Poland and Georgia.
What? We’re firing on Poland now?
The ship allegedly fired warshots while it was tied up at the pier or out in the Baltic?
The charge seems a mite unclear.
oopsie. I think someones in trouble now.
presstv is Iran, isn’t it?
This article sounds like it was translated to English from Persian after it was translated from Chinese to Persian after it was translated from Polish to Chinese.
Be more careful!
The Poles are justifiably a bit jumpy at foreign warship in their waters that happen to start shooting at them.
One word, "Westerplatte".
Here you have “Stars and Stripes” on the same incident.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65742
A U.S. destroyer accidentally fired three machine gun rounds at a Polish city while it lay at anchor Wednesday, but caused no injuries and no damage, a Pentagon official said.
The crew of the destroyer Ramage was doing routine maintenance to the ship in the port of Gdynia when a sailor inadvertently fired the burst from one of the warships M240 machine guns, the official said.
According to an English-language Polish news site, the shooting took place at 10:40 a.m. local time Wednesday and the rounds from the ship hit a warehouse. The English-language news site Russia Today carried the headline, U.S. destroyer shells Polish shore.
American sailors cooperated with the Polish police investigation into the shooting, and then Ramage sailed from Gdynia later the same day, according to its original schedule. The ship did not hasten its departure because of the shooting, said the Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the story and asked not to be identified.
The Norfolk, Va.-based Ramage was visiting Gdynia after wrapping up its participation in the international naval exercise, Joint Warrior, in which U.S. warships trained with ships from the navies of Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, Norway and Turkey.
I suspect it’s just a matter of someone getting rid of some live rounds that were not used up during the exercise. Maybe some rule that they can’t be returned to the ammo storage space after having been loaded.
But I can’t blame the Poles for being jumpy, after Obama caved in to Putin on missile defense, and got nothing in return.
What’s this about? We can’t even attack Poland properly?
I guess that Sailor who accidently fired 3 rounds is in big-time trouble!
Shelled?? US Warship shelled Poland. It was three rounds from an M-240 machinegun, think updated M-60. Geez!
Sounds like a sloppy trigger finger to me.
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