A “one-in-a-million” fuse failure caused a bizarre artillery misfire in California this past weekend, sending shrapnel raining onto Interstate 5, the Washington Post reports. The Marine Corps has launched a formal investigation into the incident.
The mishap occurred Saturday during a military demonstration at Camp Pendleton, attended by Vice President JD Vance and other high-ranking officials. No injuries were reported, though a California Highway Patrol vehicle parked on an I-5 on-ramp was dented by falling debris.
According to the Los Angeles Times, an M777 howitzer shell fired from a beach at the base exploded midair, scattering fragments below. Live ammunition is rarely used for artillery training at Camp Pendleton, which sits within Orange and San Diego counties. “It’s a deviation from standard procedures,” a source told the newspaper. “It’s really rare.”
The incident sparked a heated exchange between the White House and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom criticized the demonstration, saying the administration “put lives at risk to put on a show,” the Post reports. The White House directed specific questions about the event—which was part of the Marines’ 250th-anniversary celebrations—to the Marine Corps. White House spokesman Steven Cheung also took aim at the governor after Newsom misspelled “ordnance” in a social media post, calling him “dumber than a box of rocks.”