Army Officer Receives Four Month Prison Term after Soldier is Killed on Firing Range

[WillBrink]

I have no experience on a mil firing line, at least not with a bunch of young soldiers. I have been told by others the gun handling can be less than great. Did the punishment fit?

A Tragic Accident

Army Captain Christopher Peeples, an Aviation officer, was recently sentenced to four months in prison for failing to follow proper safety precautions at a Fort Campbell, Kentucky, weapons range. His negligence resulted in the death of a soldier.

Cont:

https://sofrep.com/news/army-officer...-firing-range/

[Wake27]

Saw this elsewhere and got into it once already with someone. Unfortunately between this and another report, there just isn’t enough information to really determine. I suspect that there was an issue with the MEDEVAC process since they keep talking about rehearsal of EVAC and that may have contributed.

That said, I’m very skeptical that this was fully deserved and at the same time, it’s one of the things that military leaders should all know but often forget - officer in charge means all responsibility, good and bad. Your ass is literally always on the line and it’s possible to get ****ed hard, justified or not.

Also, I’m not a fan of the perception this gives of me or my units, but I’ve never once seen an actual medical rehearsal for a live fire range and had no idea that “doctrine” (not the same thing as regulation FWIW) gives a 4:1 safety ratio. I have seen tons of sketch shit on ranges with support kids and if I was ever in charge of the range/unit and we were stepping outside the normal zero and qual (which is all this sounds like it was), I often took primary responsibility of running the actual firing line. This is both because I shoot enough to know what I’m doing and I was the one ultimately responsible. I also restricted the number of shooters on the line to the number of NCOs that could properly safety (usually only 3-5). We usually would go to a 1:1 ratio if we did anything more dynamic and if it was one of my best NCOs I might let him take two shooters. But there are plenty of NCOs that are just as sketchy as soldiers with a gun so the basic ratio doesn’t mean shit, it should be all about that person’s actual capability to safety. I’d put an experienced E1 safetying my 1SG if the shooting experience dictated that.

With all of that said, it’s easy to see why some leaders micromanage the hell out of potential dangerous events. I’d argue that I did not for a lot of reasons and think my NCOs would agree, but just reading the above, it probably sounds like I did.

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[OutofBatt3ry]

What a terrible story.

[arbninftry]

This happened in 2018. That Captain was probably a 2nd Lieutenant butter bar when this happened. There is a whole lotta blame, but the range 2nd LT is not the only one to burn down. Where were the NCOs? Like Wake27 said, I have never seen anyone rehearse a medevac for a static rifle range. I know the shit LTs do is stupid, because I was one 23 years ago(prior service 11B then a 11A), but I am not so sure the blame is solely on him and the PV2 that put the weapon down the wrong way. But then again this was a support unit and not a line unit, so who know. This could have been the stupid LT and this the straw that broke the camels back.

[Wake27]

This happened in 2018. That Captain was probably a 2nd Lieutenant butter bar when this happened. There is a whole lotta blame, but the range 2nd LT is not the only one to burn down. Where were the NCOs? Like Wake27 said, I have never seen anyone rehearse a medevac for a static rifle range. I know the shit LTs do is stupid, because I was one 23 years ago(prior service 11B then a 11A), but I am not so sure the blame is solely on him and the PV2 that put the weapon down the wrong way. But then again this was a support unit and not a line unit, so who know. This could have been the stupid LT and this the straw that broke the camels back.

I saw somewhere that the apparent NCOIC was charged as well.

You bring up an interesting point about the rank though, I assumed he was flagged the whole time and therefore never promoted. I don’t know if that’s feasible or not. If not and he was an LT, then a company commander would’ve had to sign the DRAW, meaning the CPT should be ultimately liable.


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[arbninftry]

I saw somewhere that the apparent NCOIC was charged as well.

You bring up an interesting point about the rank though, I assumed he was flagged the whole time and therefore never promoted. I don’t know if that’s feasible or not. If not and he was an LT, then a company commander would’ve had to sign the DRAW, meaning the CPT should be ultimately liable.


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Who knows, but I do know they promoted Berghdal before they canned him. Yep that Company commander should have been slammed also, if that is the case.

[Averageman]

I always thought that the Army should be a bit stricter on ranges. I've seen the good the bad and the ugly on them. When it goes bad it can go very bad very quickly and the stupid is contagious.
One of the bigger problems for me was that you at times might have three or more units on one range. One unit, one range, one OIC. NCOIC and one set of Range Safties.
When you start mixing all of that up no one has control.
It sounds like this guy was the sacrificial lamb.

[Pappabear]

The one thing we all know is this totally sucks for everyone involved. No bad guys and a dude died. Very sad sitch.

PB

[SteyrAUG]

I obviously need lots more info to form a full opinion BUT there are four rules and obviously one or more of them were violated.

If everyone who carried a firearm as part of their occupation adhered to them as strictly as they do to lesser things that they usually deem more important, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to unintentionally shoot anyone or anything. This is not FOUR years of instruction, but FOUR painfully simple rules.

I also suspect, but can't say for certain, that if this involved PFC military guy rather than CPT military guy, it would be a lot more than four months.

As with almost every accidental shooting I've ever heard of, this was preventable. I don't care what other military skill you were working on that day, if you are handling firearms "not letting them point at somebody you don't intend to shoot" and "keeping your stupid finger OFF the trigger unless you are going to shoot something or somebody" takes priority over everything else.

If you simply cannot do that, then the training exercise should involve blue guns.

[SteyrAUG]

I always thought that the Army should be a bit stricter on ranges. I've seen the good the bad and the ugly on them. When it goes bad it can go very bad very quickly and the stupid is contagious.
One of the bigger problems for me was that you at times might have three or more units on one range. One unit, one range, one OIC. NCOIC and one set of Range Safties.
When you start mixing all of that up no one has control.
It sounds like this guy was the sacrificial lamb.

I've been on all kinds of ranges and eventually you get somebody who thinks they are "special" enough they are exempt from ordinary rules. I used to run into this crap with SWAT guys from time to time when I stopped everyone and reset everything because #3 guy can't move through the room without flagging the two guys in front of him.

I always ended up listening to 5 minutes of "in the real world it's impossible to avoid" and "you see it happen in Iraq all the time" to which I had to explain it is "possible to prevent it in THIS room and we aren't in Iraq and you aren't defending a FOB from 200 attackers." Also if you shoot your buddy, you are just another cop killer so save the BS.

Same guys can do 10 minutes on why their sling setup is the only correct one in the world and everyone else is just wrong BUT they can't grasp why the four rules of gun safety are always THE RULE.