Monday, July 11, 2011

Forgotten Dates in Military History: The Doha Dash, 11 JUL 1991

Clif's Notes Version; malfunctioning vehicle heater cooks off ammunition in an M992 ammunition carrier that then sets off a series of massive secondary explosions that effectively destroy a hell of a lot of 11ACR's AFVs - a total of 102 vehicles including 4 M1A1's. The toll was orders of magnitude higher than combat losses in the just-concluded Second Gulf War.
Read about it here.

My son once asked my why soldiers marched around and did everything together like robots. I explained that in the old days soldiers fought that way. That the rule of thumb is that the closest weapon is the most dangerous, and that the man beside you - even though he was on "your side" - was closer than the closest enemy. So the soldiers learned to handle their weapons like that to keep from shooting each other.He didn't get it.(h/t to John Cole at Balloon Juice, one of the veterans of the Dash)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I caught that at BJ before I came here.

Did you see the report about the big boom on Cyprus?

bb

rangeragainstwar said...

Chief,
I'd have to wonder how a cbt vehicle could be designed with a heater near the ammo storage.
Duh, is this Amie engineering??
jim

FDChief said...

basil - I did hear something, but no details. Greek/Turk shenanagans? Islamic group? Accident? what's the story?

jim: I wonder, too. Seems like a dumb idea, but the other thing is I have no idea how they figured this out; sounds like the vehicle was vaporized. So unless someone in BN Maint was actually working on the thing, I'd file this under "best guess"...

rangeragainstwar said...

Chief,
This also IS NOT an endorsement of the shipping and storage tubes that the rounds are kept in.
jim

FDChief said...

The tootsie rolls? Those things are just to keep the dust off...