Bragg Officers, Crew Disciplined in Fatal Howitzer Accident: Report
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer | Apr 06, 2015 | by Amanda Dolasinski
A battery commander and half a dozen leaders were disciplined after an artillery accident at Fort Bragg last year that killed one soldier and injured seven soldiers, two seriously, according to an Army investigative report obtained by The Fayetteville Observer.
The accident occurred at Sunken Track training field just after midnight on Feb. 21, 2014. Soldiers with 1st Section, 1st Platoon, Bravo Battery, 321st Field Artillery Regiment, 18th Fires Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, were conducting a nighttime training exercise with the M777 light-towed howitzer. The training was to include a platoon air assault, reaction to enemy contact and live fire.
Pfc. James Groth was killed. Sgt. Cory Muzzy and Sgt. Scott Yeates were seriously injured.
A 10-man crew was operating the howitzer. The crew consisted of a section chief, gunner, assistant gunner, driver, ammunition handler and five cannoneers.
Around 12:22 a.m., five crew members attempted to ram a second round into their howitzer breech, but the first round had not cleared the tube, according to the Army investigative report. The action caused an explosion of powder increment from the first round, according to the report.
The report, obtained by the Observer under the Freedom of Information Act, is more than 400 pages and includes witness statements and photos of the cannon. The investigation, conducted by the 18th Fires Brigade, was ordered by Lt. Gen. John Nicholson, who was the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division at the time.
The investigator listed eight findings and made eight recommendations. Among the findings, the investigator said:
* The 1st section required more senior leader presence while conducting live fire operations;
* Bravo Battery was not provided adequate time to execute platoon training. Instead, most of its training time had been focused at the section level with minimum opportunities to train at the platoon level;
* 3rd Battalion had an inadequate certification tracking system, therefore it did not have effective means to track the minimum certification requirements for sections and individuals, which ensure each person is qualified to perform his duties;
* The air medical evacuation plan for field operations was inadequate to meet the possibility of a life-threatening incident.
Col. Stephen G. Smith, commander of the 18th Field Artillery Brigade, which is the realigned Fires Brigade, said all of the recommendations were implemented quickly. He declined to comment on each recommendation specifically.
"The emphasis on safety within the organization is the No. 1 priority before we do any training event," Smith said. "All of the recommendations were implemented to reduce the risk of an accident like this occurring again."
The investigator recommended issuing letters of concern to the battery commander based on his management of the certification program at battery level, and to the operations officer for his management of the certification program at the battalion level and the lack of battalion oversight for the pacing of the exercise, according to the report.
Other recommendations were to de-certify all platoon leaders, platoon sergeants, gunnery sergeants and howitzer and fire direction center crews in the3rd Battalion, 321st Artillery Regiment; removal and retraining of the platoon leader, platoon sergeant, both section chiefs and the 2nd section ammunition team chief.
-------
After three weeks laid up in the hospital under crude florescent lights, Sgt. Scott Yeates had been dreaming of the moment he could see his bubbly, 3-year-old daughter.
In the year since the accident, the unit realigned and has transitioned its weapon system from a howitzer cannon to a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HiMARS.
All of the soldiers trained on the new weapon system and became certified and qualified through battery-level operations, Smith said.
He has watched as the soldiers leaned on each other to remember Groth, Muzzy and Yeates, while also pushing each other to be better.
"It's the definition of Army strong watching that battery go through that, and at the same time, continuing to reach out to those that were injured that night," Smith said. "This unit, instead of crumbling when this accident happened, buckled their chin straps. The biggest thing that I've seen is just the amazing resiliency of our soldiers and families."
The battery commander, whose name is redacted in the report, said the exercise was meant to give soldiers a graduated scenario in which the battery would work through multiple fire missions and tactical scenarios.
The battalion commander scaled back the exercise due to a reduced number of training days, according to the report. The commander also eliminated live-fire from the air assault operation and reduced the number of tasks and scenarios on which the platoons would be evaluated.
The night of the exercise, the battery commander told senior leaders on the firing point he was concerned for risk caused by fatigue and directed that sections not put up nets, and that they focus on receiving necessary ammunition for the remaining fire missions.
On the night of Feb. 19, soldiers with the 1st section were 41 hours into a 48-hour exercise. None had slept more than three hours, and none of that sleep was consecutive, according to the report.
The 1st section fired its first live round, a check round, around 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 20. It had not participated in any previous live-fire because of issues with its digital firing capability, according to the report.
The soldiers received their mission digitally, and it also was called down by the Battery Fire Direction Center. Groth, an ammunition handler, loaded the round, and rammed it with help, according to the report.
The "fire" command was given, and the howitzer's lanyard was pulled. The section chief, whose name is redacted in the report, told investigators he could not see the breech at the time because he was standing near the radio telephone operator's table, but heard a sound he thought was the howitzer. He saw the crew move in to swab the breech and prepare a second round, according to the report.
Groth and another soldier attempted to ram the second round when they came into contact with something that blocked the tube. The stoppage was significant enough to cause Groth and Muzzy, an assistant gunner, to curse, according to the report.
They attempted to ram again when the explosion occurred.
The explosion -- seen across the firing point -- was described as a bright blue and white flash with a loud explosion.
"I looked up and saw a flash," the section chief said. "After that, everything went black and it was crazy."
The section chief spent 11 years as a cannon artilleryman. He had been with the unit for about 1 years, according to the report.
The battery commander yelled to put the unit in a "check fire" status while several people, including two medics, moved in.
The 1st section gunner, who was responsible for the crew manning the howitzer, told investigators he turned his head away from the breech as Groth rammed the second round. He was thrown to the ground.
"My first reaction was to get up and run away, but I was feeling very dazed and a little confused of what just happened," he said. "I feel completely destroyed and confused and not quite sure what to make of it."
The force of the explosion threw Groth into the section's truck. Other members of the section were thrown toward the ground and disoriented by the flash of light and the sound of the blast, according to the report.
The explosion propelled the ramming staff into the section's water cooler and sheered the loading tray off the howitzer, scattering pieces across the area, according to the report.
The radio transmission operator, whose name is redacted, said he was disoriented and briefly lost his hearing.
The operator got up and began to help when he realized the severity of the situation, according to the report.
"I started hearing that there was an amputee and it really hit me," he said. "I started to go in shock and just everything happened so fast."
Two medics were treating the wounded soldiers.
One determined Groth died instantly. His body was placed on a litter and covered with a poncho.
Someone contacted range control for a medical helicopter evacuation.
Range control tried to coordinate with UNC AirCare, but low clouds prevented the helicopter from responding, according to the report.
At that point, the medics decided to move the casualties from the training area about a quarter of a mile onto the paved road so the ambulance could get to them.
The casualties arrived at Womack Army Medical Center around 1:21 a.m., according to the report.
The site was secured by Army Criminal Investigation Command. The following day, the Explosive Ordnance Detachment destroyed rounds that had blood or medical material on them.
-------
Jordan Franz-Groth was used to her husband going into the field for training.
The 20-year-old widow of Groth certainly didn't think the last time she would embrace her husband would be in the car as she said goodbye.
"I dropped him off to go to the field," Franz-Groth said, speaking by phone from her home in Washington. "It was like any other morning. I just kissed him and let him go."
She knew the training exercise would be intense and limit the soldiers' ability to communicate with people back home. But she started to get antsy and sent a text message to her husband the morning of Feb. 21 -- just hours after the accident.
"No answer," she said, remembering as she waited on a response.
Later that day, she was working at a coffee shop on post when she saw two men walk in, dressed in military uniforms. A co-worker said they needed to talk to her privately.
"I knew," Franz-Groth said. "I was in shock. I remember asking them again, 'My husband's dead?' They told me yes."
The couple met when he was 19 and she was 17 through mutual friends in their home state of Washington. They were married at the Chehalis River, just west of Olympia, in June 2013.
Franz-Groth stayed behind in Washington to finish her associate's degree while her husband settled at Fort Bragg. She moved out to join him after their wedding.
Her husband had only planned to stay in the Army for three years, but he loved being an artilleryman, she said. She remembers many late nights when he would crawl into bed with diagrams of the howitzer to study the positions.
Franz-Groth said her husband planned to return to Washington and study mechanics when he left the military. He enjoyed working on cars, she said.
In his free time, Groth enjoyed playing video games and outdoor activities, his wife said. Although he had a tough exterior in the Army, he was a sweet and loving husband, she said.
"What I'm missing is him," she said. "He's always in the back of my mind every day. I reflect what life would be like as his wife. It is hard, though, having your life plans planned out and having them change like that."
Franz-Groth said she has a strong support system that has helped her cope with the loss of her husband. She has spent time with the families of Muzzy and Yeates, which has been uplifting, she said.
"I don't hold any grudges that Muzzy and Yeates did survive," she said. "I'm glad they survived."
In June, what would have been a month filled with love as the couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary, Franz-Groth instead slipped on a teal dress and sat on the porch of her Washington home to buff her husband's dress boots. Her mother captured the moment so Franz-Groth would have a photograph to hang in memory of her late husband.
"I wanted to honor him in some way," she said. "I just bought that house. That would have been our house."
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/04/06/bragg-officers-crew-disciplined-fatal-howitzer-accident-report.html?comp=7000023468004&rank=1
