Chinese Soldier almost kills himself at hand grenade practice

[Guest]

Moment a Chinese soldier almost kills himself with fluffed hand grenade practice | Mail Online

This is the hair-raising moment a Chinese soldier almost killed himself after fluffing hand grenade practice.

Footage of the army training exercise shows the soldier preparing the hand grenade to throw it under the watchful eye of his drill sergeant.

However, the new recruit fails miserably and throws it into a wall in front of him and it promptly bounces off and falls into the ditch where he's standing.

Now thats some quick thinking by the range officer...extremely commendable, can't say the same for the trainee.

How did all the military professionals do first time at the grenade pit? Any interesting stories to share?

[S2]

Pulled the pin and threw it. Left the grenade. It killed me.

I'm a ghost.

[Parihaka]

Sensible bunker arrangement and obviously the range officer had rehearsed this eventuality in his mind many times. The only thing that astounds me about him is he didn't immediately let loose at the idiot.


*Steve, I always suspected it, the way only your glasses are in colour

[Gun Grape]

As a pit safety guy, that scenario is always on your mind. He is to shook up to chew ass right then. Go back behind the safety vehicle so you are out of sight, down a canteen of water, smoke a half pack of cigarettes, quit shaking.

Then hunt that little POS down and make him wish he had never been born

[S2]

"*Steve, I always suspected it, the way only your glasses are in colour"

Done so for the benefit of others. Sorta spooky though.

[bigross86]

Before we got anywhere near the real grenade we were in the position throwing 2 inert grenades and practicing different FUBAR scenarios. Grenade drop in the position, outside the position, behind the position, etc...

Once we proved we could get our asses out of harm's way, we were allowed into harm's way and finally given a grenade to throw. They make a disappointing kinda "Boom" when you're hiding behind concrete and sandbags, but then again, after shooting a tank main gun, most things make a kinda disappointing boom...

[USSWisconsin]

We got to throw dummy grenades in ROTC - a couple people dropped them. They didn't go boom - good thing too.

[Tanker]

Moment a Chinese soldier almost kills himself with fluffed hand grenade practice | Mail Online

Now thats some quick thinking by the range officer...extremely commendable, can't say the same for the trainee.

How did all the military professionals do first time at the grenade pit? Any interesting stories to share?

Geezus...I did fine but the guy after me, Butler, didn't do so well. I walked behind the glass and patted him on the shoulder for his turn and he walks down to the pit, steps over onto the sump cover, the instructor gives him the warning order he turns and he is a lefty Butler has nervously already pulled the safety pin out so with no time the instructor tells him to grasp the ring, pull, THROW!

Hits the sandbags in front and down into the sump...over the wall...me standing there with face pressed against the glass..."BOOMP!!"

Will never forget Butler...ever.

[RollingWave]

that's a rather old news, though yeah that sergant did well there.

[mustavaris]

I missed the training with live hand grenades during my service, but we trained with inert practise grenades.. some of us got plenty of experience though. For reason unknow to me, my platoon missed the hand grenades, LAWs, live mines.. only our drivers, by chance, got the opportunity to train with live grenades and so did many of the guys in other platoons. I guess that they thought that we who´d dwell at the regimental HQ won´t need that so much and in 1998- our military was starved of the money and we couldn´t even repair/replace the vehicles that broke down during the war games..

[Albany Rifles]

Grafenwoehr, Summer 1982. I am running the battalion hand grenade range. The first half of the range is the qualification assault course with the dummy grenades. The second half of the range is live grenade throw from the pit. My PSG, who had spent a lot of the time in the 1st Ranger Battalion ran the qual course with 2 squads, 1 ran live side 1 with squad and 1 squad handled ammo. It was a three day gig. By the middle of Day 3 just about everyone in the battalion, including some cooks, had been through the course. I asked the S3 if I could close early they said “NO!” I asked the S4 if he could come pick up the leftover grenades and he said “There better be none to turn in!” We had (I remember the count) 97 live grenades leftover we had to get rid of…all my soldiers had thrown all they wanted so it came down to my PSG and I to get rid of the remaining 20. We each got into our own throwing pit and tried to see who could throw closest to a target, who could splash the other with mud from the holes, etc.

He then has the bright idea that we would both get in the same pit and see he could wing it the farthest. I went first and almost threw it beyond the far safety line. Feeling cocky I step and le PSG take his shot. Did I mention he had been in 1st Ranger Battalion? This lunatic pulls the pin, rears back, looks at me with a glint in his eye and lets the spoon fly. He then calmly lays it on top of the sandbags at the front of the pit (chest high). As I am swearing at him we both dropped to the floor…me cursing a blue streak and him laughing his ass off. Grenade goes off, my ears ring for about 5 minutes and he said…”Well, Sir, looks like you won!”

Screw the S4, we turned in the rest of the grenades.

Crazy bastard went back to the 1st Ranger Battalion that fall.

I never threw another live grenade again!

[bigross86]

Our training was one day, after all, armor troops don't really use grenades, but we needed to have the training and qualify just in case. Whoever wasn't in the grenade pit was either throwing grenade sized rocks under the tutelage of one of the officers and sergeants, or running from those same "grenades" (rocks) had just been launched. Every single rock thrown meant we had to run as far away from the grenade as possible for 3 seconds and then hit the deck, of course with rifle aimed forward and "shooting" at the simulated enemy. Of course, 2 seconds after we hit the ground another grenade would come in our direction and we would have to get up and run again, repeating the process ad nauseum. Good aerobics training.

Towards the end, once it was finally our turn to start tossing rocks, we started trying to land them as close as we could to the other soldiers, just to piss them off and cause we were so tired already.

[dundonrl]

the only grenades I've ever used was an M203 attached to a M-16 when my ship was out at sea.. (for practice) and a lot of fun..

[-{SpoonmaN}-]

I have quite literally seen the same whilst I was in HM Forces, and this guy was supposedly "experienced". So, yeah, look within before you criticize without...

[Chogy]

Question for you mud-wallowing grunty types... While flying above the filth in air conditioned comfort, I've pondered the throwing style taught to American boys. In training films, you see the grenade being thrown straight-armed, with the stiff arm following an arc. The result seems to be bad accuracy and short range.

Then, you see film of actual combat, as in the South Pacific WW2. Young Marines, who grew up playing baseball and could put a ball in a mitt at 100 feet, throw the grenade baseball style. You do also see the stiff-armed variety of throw.



Which of these do they teach today, and why? And in combat, do soldiers say "F it" and throw like they would a baseball?