Couple of Sad stories

**lemontree** · 17 Jan 12,, 08:06

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

Captain,

I do not mean to add insult to injury ... but should not the Quarter Master have known that? Yes, I know, our British heritage means we blame everything on the QM but come on, lifespan is the QM's responsibility.

Sir, most training establishments have fresh ammo due to the continues firing that takes place there. There are an average of 4 Mor courses run per year. So rotation is fairly OK. We do end up with crap sent by the ord factories, coz apart from the mor accident mentioned, we have had a 84 mm Carl Gustav and an 106 mm RCL blowing up on firing.

The COI send their findings to the ord factories and the ammo of that lot is then segregated and rechecked. If anymore errors are found then the whole lot is recalled from other units/ establishments also.

**Officer of Engineers** · 17 Jan 12,, 08:13

Yeah, seen it here also. I don't know any fix to that

**dave lukins** · 17 Jan 12,, 11:57

Originally Posted by lemontree

Sir, most training establishments have fresh ammo due to the continues firing that takes place there. There are an average of 4 Mor courses run per year. So rotation is fairly OK. We do end up with crap sent by the ord factories, coz apart from the mor accident mentioned, we have had a 84 mm Carl Gustav and an 106 mm RCL blowing up on firing.

The COI send their findings to the ord factories and the ammo of that lot is then segregated and rechecked. If anymore errors are found then the whole lot is recalled from other units/ establishments also.

Surely all ammunition has a 'shelf life' and is rotated/issued in stock rotation. As OOE has stated it is the QM duty to ensure all ammunition issued to his unit is date checked. There will of course always be a rogue batch and that whole batch should be destroyed rather than being re-checked and re-issued. I would not like it on my conscience knowing there had once been faulty ammo' in a batch now re-issued to my unit.

**dave lukins** · 17 Jan 12,, 11:59

Originally Posted by officer of engineers

yeah, seen it here also. I don't know any fix to that

FEET, WHEN YOU MOVE TAKE ME WITH YOU

**lemontree** · 18 Jan 12,, 04:15

Originally Posted by dave lukins

Surely all ammunition has a 'shelf life' and is rotated/issued in stock rotation. As OOE has stated it is the QM duty to ensure all ammunition issued to his unit is date checked. There will of course always be a rogue batch and that whole batch should be destroyed rather than being re-checked and re-issued. I would not like it on my conscience knowing there had once been faulty ammo' in a batch now re-issued to my unit.

Im sure all QMs do their checks and balances. About rogue batches, I remember, when I was still in the officers training acaddemy, during field firing, my coursemate's 84 mm Carl Gustav misfired. As per drill he cocked the weapon again and fired, nothing happened, the wpn drill sgt then made him count up to 10. Nothing happened. No the dets on the right and left were asked to clear out. My coursemate's det was sweating by buckets now. The misfired HE round was removed and gently carried to a safety pit to be destroyed later.

In operations, when I was with a forward defended locality, we were having quite a go at the enemy and for a change were permitted to use our 84 mm at them. Two HE rounds misfired and without a thought the det tossed the rounds on the forward slope facing the enemy. Later that night I was nagged by the thought that some innocent wild life would become a victim of those live explosives. So the following night I took my sapper section chaps and destroyed the 2 rounds after hunting for them for the better part of the night.