Marine Tragedy Most Likely A Faulty Mortar Round. There Is Only One Possibility.
I was trained as a mortarman or 11C10 in military lingo. The 60mm mortar is a much lighter version of the 81mm and 4.2inch mortar. Mortars one of the deadliest light weight artillery in the infantry. They are indiscriminate and they have a very large kill area.
And having been shelled myself in Vietnam mortars are one of the scariest weapons because they hit at random in a targeted area. And once you hear the fins you have about 1 or 2 seconds to find cover.
Mortar tubes themselves are just a reinforced metal tube. And a mortar shell has about 3 main components. There is the fin with a shell like charge at the bottom. And there are charges that look like swiss cheese. And the charges control the distance of the shot. The main projectile is high explosive surrounded by a brittle shell that shatters into thousands of pieces when it explodes. At the tip is the detonator that has a pin in it.
Once the shell is dropped into the tube the pin in the bottom strikes a small detonator that fires the charges. The shell IS NOT armed until it is out of the tube. As the shell exits the tube a pin that releases upon firing rests against the tube until the shell exits. Then the pin is sprung out of the detonator and the shell is armed after it is on its way to the target.
The charges are not strong enough to rupture the tube alone unless the tube is defective. It is hard to believe that the charges alone would cause so many casualties. It seems likely there was a defective detonator that caused shell to explode.
The only other possibility is a misfire in which case the tube must be carefully tipped over while the shell slides out. A soldier must cup his hand at the end of the tube to hold the pin in place as the tip of the shell exist so the shell cannot arm. If you let go of the pin in such a case, then all bets are off.
The Marines were right to stop training on all 60mm mortars until they can determine cause. How terrible a tragedy. In a mortar platoon each person carried at least one or two of these shells around while on patrol.
