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2010 Slush Pile

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Hand grenades and curiosity

2010 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Whilst stationed in Kosovo, I was shocked by the stupidity of one of the soldiers in my battalion. Two soldiers from the an Engineering platoon had been tasked with relocating ammunition and hand grenades. On the ground next to their vehicle they had several boxes, some containing the grenades, which were stored in cardboard tubes with five in each, and four tubes in each box, and another for the detonators (stored separately for safety and security reasons). Out of curiosity, one of the soldiers picked up a detonator from the box and started to fiddle with it. He had apparently never been trained in the use of hand grenades. Whilst examining the detonator, he grabbed the pin and twisted it and pulled it. He thought it would be easy to reinsert the pin after carrying the arming procedure. He began to panic and tried to reinsert the pin, but in the midst of his panic he relaxed the hand holding the handle in place on the detonator. Meanwhile, the other soldier hadn't suspected anything and was in the middle of putting a crate of ammunition into the vehicle. The grenade-toting soldier tossed the active detonator a few feet away. The detonator landed right next to one of the boxes containing grenades. The other soldiers then froze in terror, when noticing the distinct fizzing sound of the detonator, marking it would go off within three seconds. There was a loud bang from the detonator as it went off. The soldiers fell to the ground, one unscathed, the other, who had committed the foolish act received shrapnel wounds less than an inch from one of his eyes, and on his legs. Luckily for the curious soldier and his colleague, the hand-grenades did not detonate from the blast.

Submitted on 03/27/2010

Submitted by: Thomas
Reference: (08 April, Kosovo)

Copyright © 2010 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Playing with grenades and detonators when not properly trained is just asking for trouble. Thanks for the story, Thomas.

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Dad was a drill sergeant. I wish he'd had this story to tell when the recruits complained about grenade drills! Thanks, Thomas!

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