US Army Kills A Kitten With An Artillery Shell.

Mr. Coffee · Post by **Mr. Coffee** » 2008-04-12 07:04pm

Cat dies when misfired artillery shell hits home
Army suspends testing at N.J. base after fragment hits 10-year-old's bed

ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - The Army is suspending outdoor weapons testing at a northern New Jersey base after a wayward artillery shell fragment crashed through the roof of a home miles away, fatally injuring a pet cat, the base's commanding officer said Saturday.

Picatinny Arsenal officials will investigate how a 2-pound piece of an artillery round fired from the base ended up crashing through the roof of a Jefferson Township home Friday afternoon, Brig. Gen. William N. Phillips said in a statement.

The Star-Ledger of Newark says the 6-by-4-inch object landed on the bed of a 10-year-old girl. She had left about 20 minutes earlier to go to a sleepover at a friend's house. But the family cat was injured and had to be put to sleep.

The house is about two and a half miles from the Picatinny Arsenal, which was conducting weapons tests at the time.

Phillips said he visited the home Friday night and apologized.

Picatinny is the site of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, which conducts research, development and engineering for weapons systems.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2008-04-12 07:09pm

I thought they didn't let cross-eyed people into the Army, let alone let them handle artillery.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2008-04-12 07:13pm

I’m going to bet that nothing actually went wrong with aiming, and that simply the shell body failed to fragment as fully as it should, producing a very large 2lb projectile that was able to fly a very long distance, certainly thats not a normal size fragment. This happens from time to time with any bursting mention, a mere hand grenade for example should normally throw fragments with dangerous force no more then about 25 yards, but sometimes a big chunk will break off and travel ten times that distance.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2008-04-12 08:00pm

Besides my sorrow for the tragic death of the poor feline, how often do shells fly soo massively off course?

Zor

Post by **Kuja** » 2008-04-12 08:01pm

Thank god it only killed a cat and not, say, a kid.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » 2008-04-13 12:53am

Zor wrote:Besides my sorrow for the tragic death of the poor feline, how often do shells fly soo massively off course?

Zor

I read a story three to four times a year about off course shells hitting homes from the U.S. alone.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2008-04-13 01:09am

accident's happen, good thing that the kid decided to sleep over...

just hope she doesn't have visions of the kitty haunting her...

Warsie · Post by **Warsie** » 2008-04-13 02:07am

Adrian Laguna wrote:I thought they didn't let cross-eyed people into the Army, let alone let them handle artillery.

oh man that is mean but funny.

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2008-04-13 02:11am

Is the child going to be compensated for this at all?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2008-04-13 02:20am

Yes, were hiring the actor who played frank the bunny to follow her around.

actually a few times a year this sorta thing happens, I was training for wild land fire fighting when our simulated fire break came under fire from the USMC preping for Gulf war I.

no one checked to see if someone else was using the federal land in that area at the time. there has probably been a few cases where simple transposed numbers by a tired soldier has resulted in civilian casualties...

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2008-04-13 02:31am

Warsie wrote:
Adrian Laguna wrote:I thought they didn't let cross-eyed people into the Army, let alone let them handle artillery.
oh man that is mean but funny.

I don't get it, modern artillerymen to my knowledge use math for targetting. So shouldn't the joke be, 'Looks like he forgot to carry the two', or something like that?

On Topic: Holy shit, that little girl hit the probability jackpot, had there not been a sleepover it'd been her and the cat. Still sad about the cat though.

Post by **Edi** » 2008-04-13 04:31pm

Probably what Skimmer said, plus wind conditions have a large impact on where things land and whether something gets caught on the wind and goes way off course. Back when Kaljamahawas in the army, he was in an artillery unit and one time they were on the range, there were such storm conditions that they had to ai 30 kilometers upwind to put the shells where they needed to go. The wind was off the scale on their charts, so they had to calculate the actual compensation.

There's no mention in that article of what kind of wind conditions there were, but they can be a factor, especially with fragments.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2008-04-13 04:41pm

I'm reminded of Spaceballs.

Dark Helmet: Careful you idiot! I said across her nose, not up it!
Laser Gunner: Sorry sir! I'm doing my best!
Dark Helmet: Who made that man a gunner?
Major Asshole: I did sir. He's my cousin.
Dark Helmet: Who is he?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an Asshole sir.
Dark Helmet: I know that! What's his name?
Colonel Sandurz: That is his name sir. Asshole, Major Asshole!
Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an Asshole too sir. Gunner's Mate First Class Philip Asshole!
Dark Helmet: How many Assholes do we have on this ship, anyway?
[Entire bridge crew stands up and raises a hand]
Entire Bridge Crew: Yo!
Dark Helmet: I knew it! I'm surrounded by Assholes!
[Dark Helmet pulls his face shield down]
Dark Helmet: Keep firing, Assholes!