7/23/1991
SSG Ricky Lee Bunch and SFC Donald Thomas Murphy, Jr., were killed on 23 July 1991. SSG Bunch was assigned to the 856th Ordnance Detachment (EOD), Stuttgart, Germany and was attached to the 146 th Ordnance Detachment (EOD) and SFC Murphy was assigned to the 146th Ordnance Detachment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), 52nd Ordnance Group (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). At 1020 hours on 11 July 1991, a defective heater in a M992 Field Artillery Ammunition Supply Vehicle (FAASV) or "CAT" loaded with 155mm artillery shells caught fire in the North Compound of Camp Doha, Kuwait. At 1100 hours the ammunition inside the ammunition carrier exploded sending artillery submunitions (bomblets) over nearby combat loaded vehicles and ammunition stocks. The blast then set off a change reaction of explosions. SSG Bunch, SFC Murphy, and PFC Joshua John Fleming, age 19, (Kent, Washington) from the 58th Combat Engineer Company, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, were killed during an accidental detonation of unexploded ordnance on 23 July 1991. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team had transported cleared unexploded ammunition from the accident site by utilizing a M113 armored personnel carrier (APC) towing a trailer to the disposal site 200 meters from Camp Doha. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team was planning to download the ordnance into the pit. The M113 was located adjacent to a pit. One Explosive Ordnance Disposal tech was in the pit and another was at the rear of the trailer. One round (unknown type) was being transferred from the trailer when it detonated.
Additional Facts: Service Number: 406-04-3820; Born: 30 May 1962; Age: 29; Hometown: Corbin, Kentucky; Burial: Pine Hill Cemetery, Corbin, Kentucky.
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