Grenade Range Instructor 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
During August 1978 I was attending USAF Security Police Air Base Ground Defense training at Camp Bullis near San Antonio TX.
On the firing ranges, one item we trained on is the M-203 grenande launcher.
The training instruct's name escapes me after all these years.
The instruct explained the fact that the grenade will not arm itself and therefore not explode until it had passed at least 16 meters after firing. This is to prevent it fron killing the firer, should he shoot a person at point blank range with it.
He then fired the grenade into the sand at his feet to proove it. Several of us then knocked him down and away from the grenade. We all survived, but I still carry a piece of wire fragment from the grenade in my right pinky to this day.
Very few of us have ever talked about the story since.....the instructor mistake was never know to the brass. We protect our own I guess.
The grenade has a base fuse that will detonate after a few seconds, even if the impact is not armed.
OOPS! Submitted on 09/27/2002
Submitted by:
Johann Geistmacher
Reference:
1978 -Camp Bullis- August
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