current events firegeezer on 30 Jun 2008 02:23 pm
French Military Blunder Leaves 17 Wounded
FRENCH AMBULANCE WORKERS WERE PUT TO WORK SUNDAY when a French Marine public demonstration went awry.
The Third Marine Parachute Regiment was giving a public show on how they free hostages from terrorists. The demonstration has been given five times previously and is performed with blank cartridges in their rifles.
But one of the magazines was loaded with live ammo and when the marine discharged his weapon which was aimed at the crowd of onlookers, the bullets sprayed the civilians and left 17 laying in a bloody heap. Fortunately, all of them have survived and the most-seriously injured of the people have been stabilized, including a 3-yr.-0ld child.
French marines collect shell casings
at site of accidental shooting.
The soldier that fired the live rounds has an exemplary record and for now there is no suspicion of his actions, but the possibility of foul play has not been ruled out.
Agence France Presse has the latest REPORT.
AFP also has some reports from civilians HERE.
on 30 Jun 2008 at 4:17 pm 1.Chris said …
While I am very glad no one was very seriously hurt this is typical of the French military and their training. The Marine who had the live ammunition should have checked before the exercise began that he was loaded with blanks. Poor training and poor leadership, no wonder the French don’t want to get involved in the middle east, they wouldn’t last a day.
on 30 Jun 2008 at 10:26 pm 2.Dal90 said …
It’s not like we’ve never flown around with armed nukes in the continental U.S…
That said, sometimes the brain does not get engaged. Firing any weapon…blanks or not…towards are crowd?
on 01 Jul 2008 at 10:28 am 3.Chris said …
Actually, we don’t fly around with armed nukes in the continental US or anywhere for that matter. We do fly around on exercises with nukes hanging from the wings but they are not armed until they are dropped. To arm it also takes a conscious decision by the pilot and/or bombardier to lift a guard and then flip a switch and then to press at least one other button to actually drop it. If it just falls off the wing it will drop to the ground and make a hole without exploding. With all the safeguards on the weapon it CAN’T explode that way. You should know your facts before you speak.
on 01 Jul 2008 at 12:54 pm 4.RGoodell said …
One would think that a casual glance (at the very least) of the magazine used might have revealed to an experienced eye that something was amiss.
If we are to assume that the magazines with live and blank ammunition were not marked differently in some way, then the soldier is also probably thinking about the possibility of loading blanks one day when he really needs live ammo.
Either way, it’s a bad deal and a great candidate for immediate policy change. Just another of those ‘Important Safety Tips’ that seems too small to even mention to a trained professional… until something happens and we realize how the smallest mistakes can have the biggest consequences.
on 06 Jul 2008 at 5:10 pm 5.CBEMT said …
“Actually, we don’t fly around with armed nukes in the continental US or anywhere for that matter… You should know your facts before you speak.”
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpajtYNrE0C4eamUSYfct_p5YTeA
Check yours.
If the greatest military on Earth can’t even keep track of a half-dozen nuclear bombs, then I think it’s safe to say that one French Marine could very conceivably confuse one magazine for another.
on 07 Jul 2008 at 6:01 pm 6.Jon said …
Oh, well. It’s not like the US has ever done anything this foolish (like, say, letting a civilian drive a submarine).