"Hey fella's, look at this"
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
I joined the New Zealand army in 1982 and this happened at the end of that year. The personel involved were New Zealand Army Cadets posted at Waiouru Camp.
The Cadet Staff were having discipline problems with a small group of four cadets. On this particular day they had all been confined to barracks as a punishment while the rest of the unit went out into the training area on a training activity.
These four cadets decided that they would abscond and go for a jaunt into the training area, regardless of the consequences.
After walking for some distance they found themselves on the range used to train soldiers on the M203 Grenade Launcher. As they wandered over the range they came accross several unexploded rounds.
From the first day in the Army we were told NEVER to touch ANYTHING which even looks like unexploded ordenance. Indeed there are signs all around every range the Army uses saying this. It is constantly drummed into every soldier in the Army.
The ringleader of this group picked up two of the grenades and held them at arm's length, whilst being egged on by his mates. According to the survivors, he then uttered these famous last words "Hey fella's, look at this" and cracked the two grenades together, causing one or both of them to explode in his hands. The M203 grenade has a lethal blast area of five metres and left little of the front portion of his body for the medics to recover later that day. The other three miscreants were all injured by shrapnel, but survived. Submitted on 10/13/2002
Submitted by:
Geoff Crowhurst
Reference:
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