Posted on 10/19/2025 11:15:59 PM PDT by 11th_VA
A California Highway Patrol cruiser was struck by shrapnel Saturday after an artillery round fired during a U.S. Marine Corps anniversary event exploded prematurely over Interstate 5 — a mishap officials described as “unusual and concerning.”
The explosion occurred during a highly contentious ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Camp Pendleton, a sprawling base north of San Diego.
The exercise, which featured live ordinance and aerial displays, was meant to officially commemorate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary — and, unofficially, serve as a counterpoint to the nationwide “No Kings” demonstration against President Donald Trump’s policies.
The exercise, which featured live ordinance and aerial displays, was meant to officially commemorate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary — and, unofficially, serve as a counterpoint to the nationwide “No Kings” demonstration against President Donald Trump’s policies…
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
I’m not buying it. Does anyone here have any direct knowledge of the firing of live ordnance over I-5?
Knowing newsome,IWould like to see the damage and the chunk of shrapnal
Shrapnel that didn’t even scratch a cop car’s paint job.
Devastating!... or fake.
There is a picture of a highway sign that says “Live Weapons Over Freeway” at the link. As unbelievable as it sounds
There is a photo. Interestingly the offending shrapnel parked itself right next to the scratch it caused. If I knew how to post a BS meter I would.
By March 1965, the writing was on the wall, and we knew final preparations were underway to deploy the 1st Division to Vietnam. A division-sized practice landing called Operation Silver Lance; was scheduled for March 9th, 1965, and fellow instructor Jim Rowley and I were set to have front-row seats. A week before the landing, Jim and I were sent to White Beach with miles of communication wire (Com Wire) in reels, tons of explosives, and multiple barrels of napalm to create a realistic scene of a beachhead being softened up by naval gunfire and air support.
White Beach, which stretched north and south, was more than just a beach. It had served as the main training area for practicing beach landings and assaults since the early days of WWII. It spanned at least half a mile wide and was bordered at each end by ridges fifteen to twenty feet tall, running east and west at right angles. White Beach was approximately at the midpoint of Camp Pendleton’s twenty miles of shoreline. The site was shaped by an old wash creating the lower area. This lower wash extended inland about a mile to Interstate 5 (I-5), where a large freeway overpass crossed it.
We spent the week placing charges in vintage armored tanks and landing craft that had been there since WWII, making the beach look like offshore naval guns were pounding them. We put napalm and explosives in these stationary props so Marine jets would appear to be bombing and strafing them. The bombardment lasted over half an hour before the landing craft hit the beach, and the attacking Marines rushed ashore into what looked like an epic Hollywood war scene.
Two-strand black twisted communication wire, commonly known as com-wire, was used to connect electric detonators, which were run to each charge. For strafing runs, which happened frequently, each blasting cap (which kicked up dirt) needed its own separate wire run. The com wire came in quarter-mile rolls, and we laid over fifty miles of this wire. The work was physically demanding, and we worked until dusk every day. All the wires had to be connected to our firing board and then carefully labeled. The firing panel was a piece of plywood on an easel, with finishing nails as contacts. A wand with a charged nail at the end, wired to a car battery, was touched to the designated contact to detonate each charge. A straight line of nails represented each strafing run. I would run the wand and drag the tip across the top of each line of nails for strafing runs.
Of course, we couldn't leave the beach with explosives lying around, so we slept in sleeping bags near the firing area. The firing zone was at the western tip of the southern ridge, where the ridge ended, close to the sandy ocean beach and the breaking waves. March evenings are cold, and on the eve of "D" Day, we were asleep in our sleeping bags when a recon team approached us, thinking they had captured us. It took a few minutes to convince them we were non-combatants, after which they moved on, very disappointed.
On the northern ridge, at the edge of the ocean, directly across from us, there was a large viewing stand where generals, admirals, other top military leaders, and foreign dignitaries from around the world gathered. On "D" Day, at the scheduled time, the ships guns fired blanks with smoke billowing from the barrels. After each shot, I would wait a few seconds before touching the corresponding nail on the firing board.
It became exciting when it was time for the Jets to attack. Jim would be on a radio handset communicating with the pilots. They would come in low from the south behind us, tell Jim their target, and when they would release their imaginary bomb. He would say, Bomb away, or Napalm away,and I would time and touch the wand to the corresponding contact. Everything was going smoothly until a pilot came in for a napalm run, too low, and flew through the billowing black napalm cloud. His wings were tilting from side to side when he reappeared, and we both initially thought we had downed an aircraft. That would have been disastrous, as the plane might have crashed into the reviewing stands. Below is a photo of Jim and me at the firing board as a jet made its run. Unfortunately, the photographer did not catch a shot of the one that flew through the napalm cloud.
They shut down I-5 for the event, and Pendleton does have base property on both sides of I-5 (main base on the East side of I-5, beach training/landing craft training areas on the West side). That is about all I know w/o looking up details of this event.
Why any installation would be authorized to shoot artillery over a public highway is beyond me. I’m not an artillery guy myself, but I know that it’s not completely unusual for an artillery round to not go where it was planned or aimed at. This can happen by being slightly off with the angle of the gun or by not putting the right amount of gunpowder into the round before it’s fired which will make the round fall short, sometimes by miles.
And if you talk to an artillery guy, every single one of them has tons of stories of what is called shooting outside the box, or almost shooting outside the box, but someone was able to stop the firing at the last second
During my tour in Vietnam our battery never “fired out.”
Fixed it.
Editors have gone out of fashion. Or they're just as illiterate as the writers.
CC
Isn’t there a statue of limitations on the misspelling of ordinance? :-)
Statue of Limitations 🗽🗽🗽
According to Cosmo Kramer...
(Similar-sounding words
ordinance is sometimes confused with ordnance)
Forget it Jake. It’s San Francisco.
Was it one of those .50 caliber rounds that still had the casing?
It’s a pet peeve. In my LE career I spent a lot of time being trained by my agencies Ordnance division. It was something I picked up from my instructors along with the other training.😁
CC
Understandable.
In SanFran they have a problem with both ordnance and ordinances. They don’t like either one.
CC
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