Misfired artillery crashes into girl's bed

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) -- A piece of artillery that was apparently misfired by the military crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home miles away Friday and injured a young girl's cat, which had to be euthanized, officials said.

No people were injured when the two-pound piece hit the Jefferson Township home about two-and-a- half miles from the Picatinny Arsenal and landed in the girl's bed, said Peter Rowland, arsenal spokesman. She wasn't home, but her cat was sleeping on the bed.

The homeowner told authorities she heard a loud noise around 2:40 p.m. and found the 6-by-4-inch object.

Picatinny officials told The Star-Ledger of Newark they were investigating. The base had been conducting tests Friday, and it wasn't immediately clear what type of artillery hit the home.

Picatinny is the site of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, whose mission is to conduct research, development and engineering for weapons systems.

To the rear of the piece. The most dreaded words in Arty.



S/F

You could always tell the chief. He was the one that looked as nervous as a dog ****ting peach pits.

ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) -- 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 (0.91-kilogram) piece of artillery 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 hot metal landed on the bed of Cheryl Angle's 10-year-old daughter. The girl was not home, but the family cat was injured and had to be euthanized.

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.

We lost 3 illum rounds (I was calling them, rounds not observed, and the FDC officer kept yelling "Repeat)during my last live fire ex at Lejeune.
I have no clue where they went, never heard nor saw them.
Does anybody remember the Colonel's wife that was killed taking lunch to the TWAZEES?
Check fire, check fire, to the rear of the piece..."

They way I herd it when I was there was that it was a General's wife who didn't want to go around twon and insisted on driving through to the Swansboro gate.
Glad I was never in the field when those dreaded words were said. We did have a btry get that in CAX once. The LT and SSgt ended up getting sent back to Lejeune and sent to HQ btry.

It was a Colone's wife. Sad, tragic event.

amazing how 15 years can change how events "happened"

I left Lejeune the last time in 1987. The first time that I called in rounds for 10th Marines, I heard that story which was in late 1985.
We lost the illum rounds during a MCCRES in Jan or Feb or 1987.
The first time that I heard "Check fire, to the rear of the piece..." was doing a dog and pony at Little Creek. The issue was the FDC sent the gun line bad dope, and realized it as the piece was fired. A Sergeant named Ken Hale was running the shell heads. His reaction was "The ***** is still in the air!"

We were out in stumps doing calibration tests for the civilians from Redstone arsenal. We shot two copperheads on our second to last day in the field. Nver found one of them. It never hit anywhere in the target area. We never found it. So any Marines out there that find one please return to G 2/12.

S/F

i was in oscar btry. from 88 to 91 and heard the story about the col. wife. in 88 echo btry. shot into the ammo dump blowing the hell out of a tree along the fence line. we also had to stop firing once because low cloud cover was breaking windows in town at least that was the word.