Safety or Skill: The Ongoing Debate Over Live Grenade Training

On the 21st, the military was thrown into chaos when a grenade exploded during boot camp training at the 32nd Infantry Division, killing one trainee and seriously injuring a non-commissioned officer. According to the military authorities, the accident occurred around 10 AM during grenade-throwing training at the 32nd Infantry Division located in Sejong City.

The trainee was rushed to the Armed Forces Daejeon Hospital in a state of cardiac arrest but later succumbed to his injuries. The lieutenant who was commanding the training suffered serious injuries to his hands and arms and was transferred to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital. The military authorities reported that the lieutenant was not in life-threatening condition and both the deceased trainee and the lieutenant were wearing bulletproof vests and helmets at the time of the incident.

The 32nd Infantry Division was confirmed to have started on-site inspection with civilian investigative agencies such as the Sejong Police Station and the National Forensic Service. According to the military court law revised last year, if a crime leading to death is found when a death accident occurs within the military, civilian police can conduct an investigation.

The military and police are investigating the exact circumstances of the fatal accident. It appears that the trainee did not throw the grenade after removing the safety pin and it exploded while still in his hand. The lieutenant was injured while trying to handle the situation. The investigators are questioning witnesses who were at the scene at the time.

Initially, grenade-throwing training is conducted in the fifth week of boot camp training. The trainee who died was scheduled to graduate in a week, causing public grief. In response to the accident, the Army Headquarters has reportedly issued instructions to use practice grenades instead of real ones until the exact cause of the accident is determined. Amidst the anticipated spread of anxiety and fear in military units due to the accident, the controversy is unlikely to die down easily given that this is not the first grenade explosion accident.

The use of practice grenades, one of the measures put forward by the Army Headquarters, was already raised in 2014. This is because in 2014, a 19-year-old trainee identified as Park had a grenade explode in his hand during training at the Marine Corps in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Park was urgently transferred after his right wrist was blown off by a sudden grenade explosion in his right hand, but he soon passed away.

A year later, in 2015, a grenade explosion accident occurred at the Army’s boot camp training unit, causing the suspension of training using real grenades. Due to this accident, an instructor died in a grenade explosion accident at the 50th Division’s boot camp training unit in Daegu. A trainee’s wrist was severed. The military then conducted training with practice grenades, but it was confirmed that they resumed training with real grenades on January 1, 2019.

In 2004, a grenade exploded at a grenade-throwing training ground of an army unit’s boot camp training unit in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, causing the death of Lieutenant Kim Beom Su. In 2002, Private Hong passed away in a grenade explosion accident during his training at an army unit’s boot camp training ground in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do.

These frequent grenade accidents at boot camp training units are believed to occur when new infantries, extremely tense upon enlistment, mistakenly pull the safety pin and fail to throw the grenade, or accidentally let go of the safety handle, causing the grenade to explode in their hands.

The military authorities supplied practice grenades made mainly of soil in 2006 to prevent recurring accidents. However, some military officials pointed out the effectiveness of training without throwing real grenades to strengthen the military. At the time, two positions were in stark opposition, and the training was changed back to using real grenades when the effectiveness controversy was raised after continuing with practice grenades.

It has been confirmed that other countries conducting grenade training include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and Israel. These countries use real grenades during training, teaching the basic structure and functions of grenades, and include the entire real throwing process in basic combat training.