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Back with another one. For anyone who missed previous posts, I did a tour as an accident investigator for the Navy and Marine Corps. I was the one they called when somebody died or there was more than $1MM in damage. Usually, it was the former (death) when I got called out to figure out what happened, why it happened, and more importantly, how to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Previous posts include:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryStories/comments/rt9iay/the_best_lance_corporal_i_ever_met/

https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryStories/comments/rb09o0/how_a_spider_saved_a_lance_corporal_from_a_court/

A month or two back, there were national headlines about an accidental shooting involving a famous actor on a movie set. They should have had blanks, but he was given a weapon with live ammo and someone was killed. “How can that happen?” Man, it is so common. Not to excuse or justify it, but it is frightenly common.

Background

In August of 2002, I got called out from Norfolk to Camp Pendleton, CA (CPCA). Seems a young Marine had been shot during a force-on-force MILES training exercise. MILES is basically changing an M4 or M16 to a laser-tag weapon, where you screw on a Blank Fire Adapter (BFA) to the muzzle, attach a laser to the underside of the barrel, and strap on laser tag receivers onto your uniform and helmet. Using blanks, the BFA traps the gas in the barrel, blowing the bolt back to chamber the next round. The rifle recoil/sound triggers the laser to ‘shoot’ at an opponent. If someone hits you with a laser, your gear buzzes until someone with a key turns it off.

Some of you are already thinking, “How can someone get shot when everyone has blanks?” which is the right question, but it’s far more common than you think. There was one separate case where some guys doing MILES training opened up on a HMMWV with a M240G machine gun that should have been firing blanks, but in-fact had a belt of live ammo (7.62 mm belt fed machine gun). Thankfully, nobody died in that one.

To set you up with some details, First Force Recon was doing a week long pre-deployment training package that was conducted by the Special Operations Training Group (SOTG) on CPCA. This was a mix of live fire events in a ‘shoot house’ and MILES in seperate buildings. The MILES events had an opposing force comprised of miscellaneous units around the base.

As an aside, I have respect for the SF, SEAL, Delta, Rangers, Recon and MARSOC folks out there, but your arrogance and complacency kept me really, really busy. Some of these guys in SEALS and Recon were so good, they never discussed SOPs or other practices while cross training and were so good that not only would they not inspect each other, they wouldn’t let themselves be inspected.

At the outset of the training week, SOTG set the tone that “you are all grownups, manage yourselves”. Not those exact words, but they gave them the ammo on pallets at the platoon’s CP and a training schedule. The platoon had to figure out the rest. So each guy would check the schedule and load up the magazines required for the day’s activities. And this was 100% normal and expected for this unit and this exercise. Prior to training events, the SNCO DIDN’T line everybody up like a bunch of recruits and inspect their equipment, it was up to the individuals to prepare themselves.

On one particular day, the unit was scheduled to do a live-fire in the morning at the nearby shoot house. They did and everything was fine. Later that day there was a FAST Rope insert to the top of a 4 or 5 story building via CH-53 where they would be using MILES gear and blanks.

How it works in a building helo takedown is the team slides down a rope from the chopper to the building. I don’t believe they are attached to the rope other than hand and foot grip. They enter the building and the first 4 guys line up against the wall next to the first door they encounter. Once the 4th man is in place he signals, 1st guy enters and shoots whoever needs to get shot. The 5th guy into the building is the first guy in the second stack on door #2. Once that room is cleared, they find the next stack to line up on. Speed is absolutely critical – Stack, enter, shoot / clear, secure, move to next stack. Its going to be fairly chaotic for the shooters as it becomes fairly randomized, moving from the top floor down to the ground floor. It’s even more chaotic for the bad guys. Multiple teams clearing multiple rooms at the same time sprinting door to door, floor to floor.

Training Day

The unit embarks on the chopper at an LZ and does rope onto the roof. Our Shooter, Sgt O, was nearly the last one off the CH-53 so the first door he stacked on wasn’t the 5th, it was around the 3rd floor or so. I believe he was the lead guy in the stack and therefore the first through the door. The opposing force (OPFOR) in this room consisted of PFC P. Sgt O raised his weapon, fired six shots in a matter of seconds.

What Sgt O and his ENTIRE CHAIN OF COMMAND FAILED TO ENSURE DIDN’T HAPPEN, did in fact happen. He had loaded a full magazine of live 5.56 mm FMJ into his rifle for a MILES event that should have had blanks. The first round blew off the BFA and the compensator (muzzle) of the rifle. The second round went into PFC P’s shoulder. The Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth rounds went center mass into PFC P, who was wearing a ballistic vest, but no SAPI (Armor) plate inside. Rounds 3-6 penetrated the vest and PFC P didn’t survive.

Sgt O didn’t comprehend what had happened initially. He said he was “In the zone”, which I actually believe and understand. It was other shooters and exercise controllers in the building who could tell that those shots didn’t match the sound of the rest of the cacophony in the building.

So in short, the Recon Sergeant mixed up his magazines, didn’t inspect them prior to the training event, was not inspected by anyone else at ANY TIME DURING THE ENTIRE TRAINING PACKAGE (week of training), put the magazine in his weapon without even looking at it, blew off his BFA and entire muzzle and put 5 more shots into a PFC.

We interviewed the unit members individually and – to the man – each at one point or another said, “29 guys went in, 28 did the right thing.” Meaning, they are all big boys, still don’t need inspection by anyone at any time. Nothing needs to change. The level of arrogance was just incredible. My mind was on ‘Where TF was SOTG in all this?’. Those guys were masters at deflection. Pinned it all on the unit. No responsibility, no accountability. They absolutely failed to set any sort of tone or expectation that training units inspect themselves or be inspected by the controllers. They set the training schedule: live fire followed by blank fire on the same day. They basically gave then an ammo dump on Monday and said, “Good luck guys, see you later.” Now, being Recon, I do expect some level of independence and maturity, but a fundamental leadership principle is “Inspect what you expect”, and that applies if you’re a Delta team member or a recruit at basic.

Aftermath

For better or worse, PFC P’s father was a Navy Chief, I believe. When the Marine Corps tried to sell their line of BS, he was having None. Of. It. Saw right through the BS and knew the levels of incompetence that had to exist for this to happen. It couldn’t have been a single person to result in this – multiple levels of incompetence and gross negligence had to exist for this to happen.

Sgt O was initially convicted of Negligent Manslaughter and took a 12 month sentence, but on appeal it was reduced to 10 months of time he had already served, a letter of reprimand and reduction to E-4. Which should be insulting to every good Corporal who has ever served in the Corps and a complete slap in the face to his family. What didn’t happen still pisses me off: SOTG managed to duck and dodge all accountability. I’m sure they made some curriculum changes, but in my mind, this started with them and ended in the death of a PFC.

If you want details, this was covered in a lot of papers at the time. A google search will lead you to trials and lawsuits that followed, I checked and a lot are on line still. It was ugly. Disappointingly, not a lot of good came from this investigation. It was the only one that I’m aware of where someone actually did any jail time, and even then it was overturned, adding insult to injury for the family of our PFC.

This wasn’t the first time I had investigated this exact same unit. The previous one in the Summer of 2001 involved a parachute that opened on impact. That one was probably the most detailed and technical investigation I ever did. I will write that up in the near future.

Lastly, I did around 3 dozen investigations in 3 years. They covered everything from weapons, vehicles, OSHA stuff, everything you can imagine and some sh*t you can’t. I’ve since moved on to a civilian career in heavy industry and use the lessons I learned daily. My hope is that some of you can glean some nuggets to use along the way (inspect what you expect, one single small action can stop a catastrophic chain of events, etc). Also, if I ever appear too jaded or disinterested in the Marines or Sailors who died here, that’s not my intent. I’ve wept for these guys I never had the opportunity to meet; met some of their families and wept with them; and laid awake at night with their autopsy photos looking back at me. I don’t ever mean to disrespect their memory or sacrifice. After this gig and a few other *gems*, just quite a bit jaded at life sometimes. I will write up the one where the guy got ran over by the boat he was driving soon, as a number of you have asked for it. Semper Fi, stay safe out there.