Post by armandzx3 on Sept 8, 2011 22:41:56 GMT -8
Ok Bob, so i cant wait till the meet for the story, so I'll just create a thread for it w/pics. Grab your popcorn and drink, so here it is:
On one of our trips into Baghdad, we found an abandoned compound so we decided to occupy it. We set up an A.S.P. (Ammunition Supply Point) where Marine units can come in and resupply any ammo or explosives needed. Below is a quick sketch of what the general areas of the compound were:
So...in the "area set aside for bad ammo", we had a plethora of ammunition that was considered bad or dangerous to troops, "Condition Code Hotel", cause they didnt go boom the way they were supposed to. Ammo in this area included small arm ammunition, frag grenades, a sh*t load of pallets of 155mm shells (WP and HE), smoke grenades, one or two javelines, some at4's, and alot of powder bags (red, green and white). If you please turn your attention back to sketch i drew and look at the bottom left hand corner: Myself and another Marine were on post on a burm at one end of the compound and we had two other Marines on the other end. This was early morning time, bright as heck out so everything is clearly visible. Once again, in the area set aside for bad ammo, we have powder bags. The powder bags are used to assist the 155mm shells shoot out of the arty cannons and these can easily be burned instead of just thrown away cause theyre just made up of powder balls. Keep in mind, these heat up and burn in different stages of heat so they are color coded to tell you how hot each type will burn. Green is the least hottest, then you have the red bags which if you stand too close, you will know what the flames of hell feel like.
Our Gunny Sgt. decided that we had too many of the powder bags in this area and didnt want to lug them around so he decided that they should 'burn' them. Myself and the other Marines on post on the burm had no idea what was going on until we saw the flames go up. (From where i was posted to the area set aside for bad ammo was a distance of about 80-100 yards. From where the other two Marines were, it was ALOT closer.) My Marine tells me, "Hey look Sgt Murillo, looks like theyre burning the bags." I look over to see a nice bon-fire going on and the flame was about a good 7 feet high. (Our Gunny is six feet, and you can tell the flame is looming a bit higher than him.)
We keep watching our surrounding area and i look over again a few moments later to notice that the bon-fire has a bit of a red hue to it now. HOLY F*K!!! This means trouble cause now it means they are mixing the red bags in w/the green. These two combined can make for a pretty big fire. I radio over to the other Marines that are on post and ask them whats going on and if they can see exactly what is being burned. They radio back saying that they are throwing in bags of green and red at the same time!!! By this time the flame is twice as high and to make things worse, the wind starts to kick up. HOLY F*K!!!!
We notice that the flame starts to swing and kick downwards in the Northern direction; towards the other ammo. At this time, im praying to God that Gunny has the right mind to stop throwing any more bags in the fire and let it calm down......NO. We see them throw some more in!!! HOLY F*K!!!! This big gust comes and does it; the flame kicks so hard it actually hit a box of 50cal. ammo. Thats when the party starts. All we hear is someone, probably the Gunny, yell "RUN!!!!!" All the Marines that were there start to scatter like ants.
Well, the 50cal. ammo starts going off and it just sets off a chain reaction from hell. Some of the rounds hit the grenades which cause them to start blowing up, they cause the other small arms to go off, then we see an AT4 go off!!!! Looked pretty cool. But then i remembered....theres a sh*t-load of 155mm shells there. If they go, that will be a big explosion. Sure enough, shortly after thinking this, we see a mushroom cloud go up. In the short few seconds that it took me to say "Oh sh*t", the sonic wave had already hit me directly in the chest and knocked me off my ass which landed me a few feet away from where i was standing. The other Marine that was with me on post had turned to run at the same time so it hit him in the back.
In the end, we ended up tumbling down the burm, which i would say was about 2 stories in height. And now to make matters worse, the sand ninjas (Iraqi military) noticed our defenses were a bit preoccupied decided to attack at that same moment. While i was rolling my happy ass down the burm, i could hear rounds hitting the burm area. HOLY F*K x1000!!!! Semi-unconscious and trying regain our composure, myself and my Marine hit the ground and began firing back as best as we could. The other two Marines had ducked on the opposite side of the burm when the party started but right before the big boom, they looked up, so the blast took out their ear drums. They ended up w/bleeding ears.
So we regain our composure and fight back. We get some help from other Marines and finally the tanks. All this time, the party is still going. Apparently, the bad ammo hit some of the good ammo and those started cooking off as well. This whole party lasted about 1 1/2 hours. At the very end, three 7-tons were burned to their axles, and there was a crater about 12'widex12'deep left in the earth. Needless to say, the Gunny will NEVER be promoted again in his career. So then command decides, we need to go in and seperate the good ammo from the bad. Me being a forklift driver and a Sgt, i was tasked as one of the two lifts that will go in and move pallets. Heres some pics i took from the lift that'll show whats left of the ammo field and the 7-tons:
Heres two of our Cpl's doing the ground guiding:
At the very end, when all was seperated, we had to do an EOD blow. Meaning we had to blow up everything that didnt go boom and was in danger of going boom when it isnt supposed to. This was the fun part. Cause now as EOD techs, we go in an set charges and time fuses and crap all around to make one hell of an explosion. Here are pics of what the mushroom cloud looked like when all was said and done:
On one of our trips into Baghdad, we found an abandoned compound so we decided to occupy it. We set up an A.S.P. (Ammunition Supply Point) where Marine units can come in and resupply any ammo or explosives needed. Below is a quick sketch of what the general areas of the compound were:
So...in the "area set aside for bad ammo", we had a plethora of ammunition that was considered bad or dangerous to troops, "Condition Code Hotel", cause they didnt go boom the way they were supposed to. Ammo in this area included small arm ammunition, frag grenades, a sh*t load of pallets of 155mm shells (WP and HE), smoke grenades, one or two javelines, some at4's, and alot of powder bags (red, green and white). If you please turn your attention back to sketch i drew and look at the bottom left hand corner: Myself and another Marine were on post on a burm at one end of the compound and we had two other Marines on the other end. This was early morning time, bright as heck out so everything is clearly visible. Once again, in the area set aside for bad ammo, we have powder bags. The powder bags are used to assist the 155mm shells shoot out of the arty cannons and these can easily be burned instead of just thrown away cause theyre just made up of powder balls. Keep in mind, these heat up and burn in different stages of heat so they are color coded to tell you how hot each type will burn. Green is the least hottest, then you have the red bags which if you stand too close, you will know what the flames of hell feel like.
Our Gunny Sgt. decided that we had too many of the powder bags in this area and didnt want to lug them around so he decided that they should 'burn' them. Myself and the other Marines on post on the burm had no idea what was going on until we saw the flames go up. (From where i was posted to the area set aside for bad ammo was a distance of about 80-100 yards. From where the other two Marines were, it was ALOT closer.) My Marine tells me, "Hey look Sgt Murillo, looks like theyre burning the bags." I look over to see a nice bon-fire going on and the flame was about a good 7 feet high. (Our Gunny is six feet, and you can tell the flame is looming a bit higher than him.)
We keep watching our surrounding area and i look over again a few moments later to notice that the bon-fire has a bit of a red hue to it now. HOLY F*K!!! This means trouble cause now it means they are mixing the red bags in w/the green. These two combined can make for a pretty big fire. I radio over to the other Marines that are on post and ask them whats going on and if they can see exactly what is being burned. They radio back saying that they are throwing in bags of green and red at the same time!!! By this time the flame is twice as high and to make things worse, the wind starts to kick up. HOLY F*K!!!!
We notice that the flame starts to swing and kick downwards in the Northern direction; towards the other ammo. At this time, im praying to God that Gunny has the right mind to stop throwing any more bags in the fire and let it calm down......NO. We see them throw some more in!!! HOLY F*K!!!! This big gust comes and does it; the flame kicks so hard it actually hit a box of 50cal. ammo. Thats when the party starts. All we hear is someone, probably the Gunny, yell "RUN!!!!!" All the Marines that were there start to scatter like ants.
Well, the 50cal. ammo starts going off and it just sets off a chain reaction from hell. Some of the rounds hit the grenades which cause them to start blowing up, they cause the other small arms to go off, then we see an AT4 go off!!!! Looked pretty cool. But then i remembered....theres a sh*t-load of 155mm shells there. If they go, that will be a big explosion. Sure enough, shortly after thinking this, we see a mushroom cloud go up. In the short few seconds that it took me to say "Oh sh*t", the sonic wave had already hit me directly in the chest and knocked me off my ass which landed me a few feet away from where i was standing. The other Marine that was with me on post had turned to run at the same time so it hit him in the back.
In the end, we ended up tumbling down the burm, which i would say was about 2 stories in height. And now to make matters worse, the sand ninjas (Iraqi military) noticed our defenses were a bit preoccupied decided to attack at that same moment. While i was rolling my happy ass down the burm, i could hear rounds hitting the burm area. HOLY F*K x1000!!!! Semi-unconscious and trying regain our composure, myself and my Marine hit the ground and began firing back as best as we could. The other two Marines had ducked on the opposite side of the burm when the party started but right before the big boom, they looked up, so the blast took out their ear drums. They ended up w/bleeding ears.
So we regain our composure and fight back. We get some help from other Marines and finally the tanks. All this time, the party is still going. Apparently, the bad ammo hit some of the good ammo and those started cooking off as well. This whole party lasted about 1 1/2 hours. At the very end, three 7-tons were burned to their axles, and there was a crater about 12'widex12'deep left in the earth. Needless to say, the Gunny will NEVER be promoted again in his career. So then command decides, we need to go in and seperate the good ammo from the bad. Me being a forklift driver and a Sgt, i was tasked as one of the two lifts that will go in and move pallets. Heres some pics i took from the lift that'll show whats left of the ammo field and the 7-tons:
Heres two of our Cpl's doing the ground guiding:
At the very end, when all was seperated, we had to do an EOD blow. Meaning we had to blow up everything that didnt go boom and was in danger of going boom when it isnt supposed to. This was the fun part. Cause now as EOD techs, we go in an set charges and time fuses and crap all around to make one hell of an explosion. Here are pics of what the mushroom cloud looked like when all was said and done:
