Accident at Fort Drum kills one, injures 14 others

AP ^ | 3/20/02 | William Kates

[WellsFargo94]

Accident at Fort Drum kills one, injures 14 others

By WILLIAM KATES The Associated Press 3/20/02 8:21 PM

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) -- One soldier was killed and 14 were injured Wednesday when two artillery rounds fell short during a training exercise, exploding near a mess tent where the soldiers were eating breakfast.

Pfc. William Hamm, 34, of Ocala, Fla. died and Staff Sgt. Eric Hall, 34, of Phoenix was in critical condition, Fort Drum officials said. The injuries suffered by the others did not appear life-threatening, according to Maj. Kenneth McDorman.

McDorman said the soldiers, part of the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, were where they were supposed to be and never knew what hit them.

"(The shells) wouldn't have made any sound," McDorman said. "They would have had almost no warning."

McDorman said the high explosive shells, launched from a 105 mm howitzer, were "devastating."

"These guys had major shrapnel wounds," McDorman said.

According to Fort Drum officials the other soldiers injured were: Sgt. Antonio Pruitt, 21, of Miami; Pvt. Travis Bare, 20, of Prairie Du Sac, Wis.; Spc. Robert Keegan, 22, of Homer, N.Y.; Pvt. Mark Pearson, 21, of Dobson, N.C.; Sgt. Jason Sturm, 24, of Alexandria, Va.; Spc. George English, 35, of Ithaca, N.Y.; Pvt. Olden Wilson, 19, of Tallahasee, Fla.; Pfc. Christopher Nuccio, 23, of Jonesboro, Ark.; Pfc. Melaine Pote, 24, of Gainesville, Ga.; Sgt. Peter Gesdahl, 25, of Boring, Ore.; Sgt. Audrey Shay, 24, of Constantinople, Wis.; Pvt. Jason Starking, 23, of Lansing, Mich.; and Sgt. Alan Willis, 26, of Georgia.

Nuccio, Pote, Gesdahl, Shay, Starking and Willis have all been treated and released. Pruitt is undergoing surgery but stable. The other soldiers have undergone surgery and are stable, according to Fort Drum officials.

McDorman said Wednesday's live-fire, "real world" training exercise was one of two regularly scheduled exercises each year at the post. The training was suspended and later resumed Wednesday, McDorman said.

"It sounds like this is just a tragic accident. I mean, what are the chances of missing your target and hitting a bunch of your own guys who weren't anywhere near where you were shooting," said Lt. Nelson Cattarall, who was at a convenience store off-post.

The 7:20 a.m. accident happened when the artillery rounds, fired from two different howitzers about three miles away from the soldiers, fell 1.6 miles short of their target. The target was in an impact zone, 56,000 acres of wilderness set into the 107,000-acre Army post in northern New York, McDorman said.

The injured soldiers, from the 110th Military Intelligence Battalion, were about 200 yards south of the impact zone. They had been doing live-firing exercises with rifles before breakfast.

The impact zone, at almost 90 square miles, is bigger than the city of Baltimore (80 square miles). The howitzer, capable of firing several different kinds of rounds including cluster bomblets and rocket-propelled shells, has a range of 8.9 to 12.2 miles.

"Everyone takes (live training exercises) seriously because your life depends on how well you learn. We are focused and concentrated when we are in the field. It's not like little kids playing army in the back yard," said Specialist Peter Lakey.

The wounded were evacuated by helicopter and ambulance and were being treated at local hospitals.

McDorman said an Army safety team from Fort Rucker, Ala., was en route to investigate the accident.

Meanwhile, a news conference scheduled for 10:45 a.m. with Gov. George Pataki was postponed.

Fort Drum is 75 miles north of Syracuse and home to the 10th Mountain Division, a light infantry force of about 10,500 soldiers. The division, the Army's most deployed during the 1990s, recently took part in Operation Anaconda in the war in Afghanistan.

The division was the first regular U.S. ground troops dispatched to Central Asia as a part of the American war on terrorism, sent to Uzbekistan in October to provide security for U.S. aircraft at an air base in Termez on the Afghan border.

They later moved into Afghanistan.