Not really an army story but forces none the less
My Father used to be a Flight Engineer on Nimrod's (a marinetime search and rescue plane) and was shipped over to Florida, USA for an an 8 week training course and a general whose search and rescue team is the best event.
Part of the training course was to drop torpedos at undersea targets and to see who could do the most damage from different altitudes etc using non live torpedos. Well during the event the helicopter crews would take the mick about how ancient the British technology was and wind my fathers crew and others up no end. It could have been sorted out fisticuff style, but being British they thought they would be a little more cleverer and sort it out McGyver style. During the course they seized there opportunity to shut up one particular helicopter crew, by launching a torpedo at a "small target" where said helicopter was hovering above filming to event. Only said torpedo was not programmed to fnd the underwater target, no, it leapt out of the water about 10 meters before the helicopter hitting it under the belly, knocking the winchman (or somebody similiar) out of the helicopter to fall into the sea, and the helicopter of course towards certain doom. It took no time for the nearest British helicopter to come over pluck the Sceptic Tanks out of the water return him to base and win the praises of the senior military men running the exercise, which shut the helicopter crews up for the rest of my fathers stay.
The official report came out that explain that it was not my fathers crew fault, but in fact the helicopter crew being too close to the water and the torpedo seeing them as a bigger target than the original one. Nobody even knew that the little buggers could jump so high.....
( NIrving Cannot think of anything to say!, Thu 23 Mar 2006, 20:41, Reply)