Butt-puckering 60mm mortar footage from US Army troops demonstrates how potentially lethal a complacent mindset can be during a live-fire exercise.

In the video we can see the 60mm tube is being used in "hand-held" configuration in which the gunner actually fires the round manually after aiming the system using a leveling sight bubble to determine the distance.

The assistant gunner appears to be distracted from his own gun's activities as other gun teams fire around him. For whatever reason, it was taking the gunner a prolonged amount of time to fire the round, and the assistant gunner then tries drop another round, not realizing his own gunner is about to fire. The round exits the tube and nearly amputates the assistant gunner's hands. It's not clear from the footage to what extent the soldier was injured.

Complacency kills!

About the Author

Will Killmore

Will Killmore is a US Army combat infantry veteran and Purple Heart recipient. He has deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with the 172nd Stryker Brigade and 173rd Airborne Brigade. Following his time in service, he successfully pursued a certificate of journalism and has been a blogger for Funker530 since 2014. Follow Will’s bad takes on Twitter