Posted on 08/30/2018 10:03:00 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
SILVERDALE, Wash. -- An inert mine found floating in Port Orchard Bay near the Browsnville Marina Tuesday was leftover from a training exercise over a decade ago, the U.S. Navy announced Thursday.
Inert training mines were placed in areas between Brownsville, Keyport, and Bainbridge Island as part of the 2005 exercise "to demonstrate various Unmanned Underwater Vehicles and their capability to detect underwater objects and avoid submerged obstacles," the Navy said in a press release Thursday.
Only a small number of the mines were designed to float, and not all training mines were recovered, the Navy said.
(Excerpt) Read more at komonews.com ...
Okay, if this was an inert mine as they now report, why did they waste it and explosives to blow it up?
Not being an ex-swabbo, but I would guess training, and just damn good fun, in that order.
We never missed unscrewing turned-in grenade fuzes and tossing them about as nice firecrackers.............
They really didn't know what it was until they investigated further. Besides, blowing stuff up is fun... why not blow it up?
Having something to blow up and the means to do it with for any government employees, creates a sense of being needed for any employees involved. It's also fun.
Mostly because it was a lot of fun for a bunch of bored EOD guys. Anyone with an ounce of sense could see that the steel casing floated so high in the water that it couldn't possibly be full of explosives. It could have been safely floated and secured until more info was obtained. In all probability it was known to be a dud before it was destroyed by explosives.
“blowing stuff up is fun... why not blow it up?”
Bingo.
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