Don't ya just love being able to get rid of old cars that way?
Another deadly hazard that Range Control liked to get rid of were old washing machines, for some reason they couldn't get the local depot to except some worn out washers....so to the .50-caliber range they went...nothing like watching three crews trying to keep the drum rolling with a Ma Deuce!
One tank gunnery we got a load of Beehive rounds to expend. Now a Beehive is a timed explosive shell that is also packed with about 4,000 flechettes; it turns a 105mm tank cannon into the world's largest punt gun. The loader simple sets the fuze for whatever range is selected, loads and the round is sent downrange where it detonates and spreads its "screaming load of white-hot death".
We got the chance to go downrange and inspect our handiwork and were in for a major surprise. The flechettes, for the most part, didn't break up into their individual pieces. The bursting charge shattered the matrix holding the flechettes and sent them flying as large chunks of sharpnel. Our Range Control officer explained that this was the major reason why Beehive rounds were being removed from service; Ordnance couldn't fix the problem.
First and last time I've ever fired a Beehive, although the rounds stayed in the ammo supply point through 1986, some seven years after they were supposed to have been withdrawn.
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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