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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsErrant Army Shell Kills Family's Cat
NEWARK (CN) - A piece of an errant Army artillery shell blasted through the roof of a family's home and killed its pet cat as it slept on the daughter's bed, the family claims in Federal Court.
The Angle family - two adults and three children - live in a residential neighborhood half a mile from one border of the Picatinny Arsenal, the headquarters of the Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC). The father, Frederick Angle, has lived in the house for 26 years.
The mother, Cheryl, was eating lunch in the kitchen with her son Brandon at 2 p.m. on April 11, 2008, the very moment that ARDEC was testing an explosive artillery shell at its Gorge Test Area in the arsenal, about a mile from the Angeles' home.
After failing to detonate the "live, unfuzed M107 155mm" on the first try, "ARDEC personnel fired a second shaped charge at the side wall of the M107 projectile. This time, the projectile blew apart. Not unexpectedly, fragments of the M107 projectile were ejected as a consequence of the explosion," the complaint states.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/01/46116.htm
rug
(82,333 posts)Poor cat.
bluedigger
(17,090 posts)That is a huge (2lb) fragment to be thrown so far from impact.
But it isn't impossible, I guess. Physical evidence doesn't lie.
I wouldn't live anywhere near a live artillery range myself, but then my job was to direct their fire - I know how easy it is to screw up.