Originally posted by dragonstar:
Cockup 11During the test, on one live firing mission, all
the guns except for mine were ready. My gun had problems with the
main sight, and we had to use a spare sight. However, the spare
cannot be secured firmly and so I had to waste time getting another
standby from the command post. All this time, my BC was repeatedly
calling for "Gun 1, check ready". My layer install the sight, laid
the gun to the specified line and quadrant, and I reported ready.
The safety NCO performed a cursory check on the laying but I was so
pressured at the time that I did not check on the layer.
Immediately after my gun fired we were ordered to 'standfast',
meaning that everyboby in my detachment was to act as mannequins
(i.e. not allowed to move). Officers came to my position and
performed a check. Apparently, the forward observer, positioned up
a hill looking at the target area had heard the whining of the 155
round as it flew past his location and called for a 'stop' (he
should not be close enough to hear the passge of the shell). It was
found that while the settings on the sight was correct, the sight
was not secured properly (a few degrees deviation can mean that the
impact is kilometers away from target). It took them a few hours to
find the impact area as the FO was focused on the target area, and
the shell had landed elsewhere (maybe he had his head down when he
heard the shell coming!). My shell had apparently landed in a padi
field and took out a cow in the process. Needless to say, I felt
down and worried for the rest of the exercise anticpating a charge
and spending time in the guardroom. Fortunately, my BC and the CO
did not take further action. (Wheww :-)
i've heard about this one!!!
my tuition teacher told me about this one arty piece, he was
assigned to. he was an arty officer. anyways, he says once, during
an ex in taiwan, someone else was in command of the arty piece, and
the sighting was wrong. they fired the shell and overshot, so they
went to search for the shell, finally found it in the padi rice
fields. so u were the one in command of that arty piece?!
Originally posted by dragonstar:
Not really a cockup 16The batch of OCS prior to the above
incident had a cadet who got it worse. He was standing between the
gun and the truck just before setting out for exercise. He was
runned down by the gun when the truck moved off and died.
heard about this one too! in fact it was that same piece of arty
that he commanded! but this happened b4 he got command of it. he
told us they needed to scrape the guy off the ground....
*shiver*
