US goes to war with Poland-Destroyer USS Ramage fires upon Polish port (accident)

Comment Away...

Destroyer Ramage accidentally fires on Polish port

By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 28, 2009 16:54:44 EDT

A U.S. destroyer accidentally fired three machine gun rounds at a Polish city while it lay at anchor Wednesday, but caused no injuries and no damage, a Pentagon official said.

The crew of the destroyer Rampage was doing “routine maintenance” to the ship in the port of Gdynia when a sailor inadvertently fired the burst from one of the warship’s M240 machine guns, the official said.

According to an English-language Polish news site, the shooting took place at 10:40 a.m. local time Wednesday and the rounds from the ship hit a warehouse. The English-language news site Russia Today carried the headline, “U.S. destroyer shells Polish shore.”

American sailors cooperated with the Polish police investigation into the shooting, and then Ramage sailed from Gdynia later the same day, according to its original schedule. The ship did not hasten its departure because of the shooting, said the Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the story and asked not to be identified.

The Norfolk, Va.-based Ramage was visiting Gdynia after wrapping up its participation in the international naval exercise, Joint Warrior, in which U.S. warships trained with ships from the navies of Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, Norway and Turkey.

I think someone had a dishonorable discharge.

Oh yeah Poland, we own you.

Do like the French and surrender now because there's plenty more where that came from.

I think “U.S. destroyer shells Polish shore.” is a little overboard for a burst of three rounds from a machine gun.

We should just tell the Polish we were returning some ammo they loaned us, they'll believe it.

Where did you find this article? Odd thing is I couldn't find it on any reputable news sites... I had to google it and the top find was an AR15 forum or something?!

Ah well, if it's true (not really doubting you just found it odd I couldn't find more info someonewhere), I'm sure that seaman is in a boat-load of trouble...

Awe shucks skipper, I was tryin' to rustle up some grub.....

it happens. Some sailor is trying to clean his machine guns so he can go out on liberty and forgets to check to see if there is a round in the chamber. A few years ago a ship down in norfolk accidentally fired a 50 cal round through a berthing barge

Oh... Believe me its true... Did I forget to mention that I might have been there...?

Knowing the Navy as well as I do, someone is going to get in trouble.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Commanding Officer is relieved as well. One thing with the Navy is that the CO is almost always held accountable, even if he isn't there.

Skins_Brew said:

it happens. Some sailor is trying to clean his machine guns so he can go out on liberty and forgets to check to see if there is a round in the chamber. A few years ago a ship down in norfolk accidentally fired a 50 cal round through a berthing barge

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Yes, this type of thing happens from time to time. Not to excuse it, though. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

When I was on Okinawa, an Ordnance guy was performing maintenance on a 20mm gun on the front of a Cobra after a gun run. There was a round in it and it accidentally fired on the flightline. The round hit a Huey and gutted the inside of it. Luckily no one was hurt.

Saying they were "shelled" by a M240 is a bit silly. Maybe they were also carpet bombed by an m203?

Who cares...I'm still waiting for the moon Nazis to retaliate for that pre-emptive strike we did on the moon a couple weeks back. You know, the one where we used the cover story about bombing the moon to search for water...yeah right, water.

Some of us know the truth.....



We just tried to get them before 2018.......so if they don't invade by then,we know we were successful.

Well it goes along with the Chair Force not knowing a plane was loaded with nuke's around the country a few years back. Luckily the support (hehe) branches, navy and airforce, still get that large amount of funding to waste while us Army guys figure out now to reinforce our own vehicles.... the only better spenders of government funds is the marines who are STILL using their Vietnam-era designed amphibious AAV's as their primary modes of transportation in the start of the war.

Navy enjoy your 10 billion dollar boat.. I'll keep my redesigned rifle from the 60s (no I would really like a new one; but if wishes were horses!!!)

My best friend's brother is on that ship. I can't wait to rag on him when he gets back. His Facebook status right now is "I'm dead tired". He's an officer, so he must have been dealing with all the crap over this all day.

Dalarast said:

Well it goes along with the Chair Force not knowing a plane was loaded with nuke's around the country a few years back. Luckily the support (hehe) branches, navy and airforce, still get that large amount of funding to waste while us Army guys figure out now to reinforce our own vehicles.... the only better spenders of government funds is the marines who are STILL using their Vietnam-era designed amphibious AAV's as their primary modes of transportation in the start of the war.

Navy enjoy your 10 billion dollar boat.. I'll keep my redesigned rifle from the 60s (no I would really like a new one; but if wishes were horses!!!)

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No kidding. I remember in basic training the rifle I qualified with I had to tap the retaining pins back in every few shots to keep the thing from field stripping itself between rounds! We were still using Vietnam vintage M-60s (I verified some serial numbers for age when I was acting as armorer) in the 90s. Then I went to the national guard where things where the old gear was...

McKBrew said:

Knowing the Navy as well as I do, someone is going to get in trouble.

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Just wait until Jethro Gibbs arrives, there will be Hell to pay!

McKBrew said:

Knowing the Navy as well as I do, someone is going to get in trouble.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Commanding Officer is relieved as well. One thing with the Navy is that the CO is almost always held accountable, even if he isn't there.

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The sailor who fired it is definetly sol. He will go down for gun decking I am sure. I doubt the co will get relieved. My ship rammed another US destroyer and neither CO lost his job.

I deleted the from, but this an email that was set to the ship the other day for one of the Polish officials that came to a reception on the boat....

I laughed out loud!

Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 8:39 PM
To: XX
Subject: Thank you for visiting Gdansk, Poland

Thank you for visiting Gdansk, Poland

As a allied country in NATO we feel even more secure when we now know that you have all your weapons with security off when visiting us. We are glad for your diligent readiness and fast shooting ability for our security. But we have to say that we are very happy that you where cleaning the machine gun and not the missiles.

Welcome back friends..

That's Amazing.. gotta love the Polish and the might of the US I can even imagine care package of CLP and cleaning rags for weapon maintenance.

Been great if it ended with "p.s. please leave your thermo-nuclear weapons at home when visiting port!"

Everyone knows the next vietnam is POLAND!



Rambo was just cleaning his gun!

Beer_Maker said:

But we have to say that we are very happy that you where cleaning the machine gun and not the missiles.

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Heh. I'm necroing a thread and I don't even care! This quote made my day.

(Also- how in the he!! do you discharge 3 rounds while cleaning a M240? I can understand the 1 round from a .50 that was mentioned, but you have to be pants-on-head retarded to screw up like that with a 240).

/end rant

Sorry, former M240B gunner here.