What I found out later, from official and unofficial sources:
- It wasn't a lone soldier driving, but a civilian maintenance contractor. Although the civilian was cleared to drive the launcher, there's a 'two-man rule' on vehicles of that size. He's lucky he was a civilian; all they could do was fire him and maybe fine/jail him for reckless driving. Had he been a soldier, he'd be scrubbing septic tanks with a toothbrush for the rest of his enlistment.
- You can't really tell from this rear view, but MLRS launchers have terrible visibility (you can see the tiny window in the open left side door). The windshield is divided into three parts, each one with its own set of retractable metal louvers to shield the windshield during launch. Reports are that only the center louvers were open.
- (speculation on my part) The accident site was about 100 yards south of a major intersection (Fort Sill Boulevard and Sheridan Road). It appears that the Camaro was sitting waiting for the light to change when the launcher ran it over and dragged it. Check out the nose of the car--it appears to be on the other side of the stop sign for the howitzer trail.
- If I worked for the company that made the Camaro's rims, I'd want this picture for my ads--"Strong enough to park a tank on!". OK, so an MLRS launcher ain't a tank, but it's not like ad guys ever bother to get the details right anyway.
- I passed through the accident site about ten minutes before. I'd like to think that I would have been able to see the thing coming and get out of the way in time.
Back to My Writing.
All the way back to the Reserved Space.
