Mortar explosion in Nevada kills 7 Marines from North Carolina unit

HAWTHORNE, Nev. — A 60mm mortar exploded during a training exercise in the Nevada desert, killing seven Marines and wounding a half-dozen others, prompting the Pentagon to immediately suspend worldwide use of the weapon until an investigation determines its safety, a military official said Tuesday.

The explosion occurred Monday evening at Hawthorne Army Depot, a facility used by troops deployed overseas, during a training exercise by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Authorities said several Marines from the unit were injured in the explosion.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said it was not immediately clear whether the mortar exploded prematurely in its launch tube or whether more than a single bullet exploded. The official was not authorized to speak to a reporter about the accident.

It typically takes three to four Marines to operate a 60mm mortar, but it is common for others to watch nearby during training.

Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, the region’s largest trauma hospital, has admitted eight patients, including one who died, five in serious condition, one in fair condition and one who was discharged, according to spokesman Mark Earnest.

All of the patients were men under 30, he said. Hospital officials described their injuries as penetrating trauma, bone fractures and vascular injuries.

The rescue was made difficult by the remoteness of the location. A helicopter flight to Reno takes 41 minutes, according to Care Flight spokesman Kurt Althof, and it takes two and a half hours by car. Small hospitals in rural Nevada are not prepared to take in masses of injured people.

The identities of those killed will not be disclosed until 24 hours after their families have been notified.

“We send our prayers and condolences to the families of the Marines involved in this tragic incident,” said the force’s commander, Major General Raymond C. Fox. “We mourn their loss and remember with heavy hearts their courage and sacrifice.”

The Marine Corps official said an explosion on the firing line during an exercise could kill or maim anyone inside or near the mortar shelter and could detonate mortars stored nearby, a phenomenon known as “sympathetic detonation.”

The official did not know whether the seven dead Marines and several other injured were at the same firing range, standing nearby to observe exercises or in an adjacent mortar range, but in any of those situations they would have been in danger after such an explosion.

The official said a worldwide moratorium after such an accident is not unusual and would last until the investigation determines that the weapon did not malfunction and injure other Marines or that mortars manufactured at the same time as the accident mortar can continue to be used safely.

The official said it was normal practice to warn other U.S. military branches that use 60mm mortars, such as the Army, before the Marines’ warning, and the moratorium could last weeks or months.

The investigation will focus on whether the Marines followed procedures to properly fire the weapon and whether there was a malfunction with the launcher or the explosive mortar itself, the official said.

The Hawthorne Army Depot is used for the storage and disposal of ammunition. The facility consists of hundreds of buildings spread over an area of ​​more than 230 square miles.

Hawthorne has held an important place in American military history since World War II, when it became the staging area for munitions, bombs and missiles for the war effort. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection says the depot employed more than 5,500 people at its peak. Nevada was chosen as the site because of its remoteness, after a devastating explosion at the government’s main depot in New Jersey in the 1920s.

It opened in September 1930 as Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne and was renamed Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant in 1977 when it came under Army control, the website says. In 1994, the site ceased use as a manufacturing facility and became Hawthorne Army Depot. The site currently serves the military for several purposes, including storing ammunition and explosives and providing what the military says is an ideal training facility for special forces preparing for operations in desert terrain similar to Afghanistan.

Politicians from Nevada and North Carolina expressed their condolences.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed his condolences to the victims of the explosion in a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning.

Nevada Republican Senator Dean Heller tweeted: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost a loved one in the explosion at Hawthorne Army Depot. We are grateful for their service.”

“The men and women who work and train there put their service above themselves every day,” Nevada Republican Governor Brian Sandoval said in a statement. “Kathleen and I want to express our deepest condolences to those killed and their families.”

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the seven Camp Lejeune Marines killed last night in Nevada,” U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the Marines killed and injured, and I will continue to follow the investigation so we can find out what happened and take appropriate action.”

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Bridis reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Michelle Rindels and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.