SEAL’s death prompts look at shoot houses

[unhappycamper]

SEAL’s death prompts look at shoot houses
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 26, 2009 15:38:21 EST

SAN DIEGO — Investigators faulted lax range safety oversight that contributed to the shooting death of a Navy SEAL during live-fire training, according to a report.

Special Warfare Operator 1st Class (SEAL) Shapoor “Alex” Ghane, 22, was shot in the upper left corner of his protective vest after a bullet pushed its way through a ballistic wall of gravel beds and plastic retainer walls Jan. 30, 2008.

It was a fatal blow to the Coronado, Calif.-based SEAL Team 5 member. The SEALs would later find out that the ballistic walls lacked the steel plates required in similar Navy live-fire training houses.

Few knew that just two days earlier, during another training run, a SEAL suspected that a round had gone through an interior ballistic wall of the same shoot house. The SEALs were training at the Mid-South Institute of Self Defense Shooting in Mississippi.

A Navy investigation into Ghane’s death found the ballistic wall was defective and poorly designed, with “an insufficiently thick gravel wall, exposure of the interior gravel to changing weather conditions and the lack of a ballistic steel plate within the wall.”


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/02/navy_sealshooting_022609/%2e

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. Is live-fire training really necessary? - we have paint balls, laser targets/imaging

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Do OTHER countries shoot bullets at their own soldiers in training?

just curious

AND ANGRY - We are killing our own young before we even put them out for cannon fodder

I don't know if us Canuks do live fire training -but I DO know that we still put our young out for cannon fodder

Shame on us too . . .

[benEzra]

2. They weren't shooting at their own soldiers; that was supposed to be an impermeable backstop

but the bullet penetrated the "bulletproof" backstop and hit a soldier on the other side.

And yes, live-fire training is vital to maintain competence and proficiency (SEAL or not); shooting well is a very perishable skill, for military and civilians alike.