That video wreaks me every time I see it.
“Come on man my family is in the car”
“Sorry, I’m just going to fast to stop”
I get little choked up just describing it here. It is a powerful [video](https://youtu.be/3qNjt04bpQM?si=HgEnBkLAI_ZcBtOQ)
one of those movies where the main character dies in the first scene, and then the whole movie is how he ended up there. The camera woman died IIRC together with all the soldiers https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/03/us-army-photographer-hilda-clayton-photo-death
The image in that article isn’t from the same vantage point. What exactly happened here? In OP’s image there is a videographer with a low angle on the left bottom side of the frame. So there is footage of the incident..possibly
Yes, but it’s clearly a video camera in the frame. The image used on the guardian article is a clip from a video. You can tell by the aliasing. I think there’s footage of this.
It's actually pretty normal for that to happen. I'm a war photographer (journalist rather than army) and I've had to compare with my colleague countless times so we don't end up sending doubles of basically the same thing.
This happens whenever photographers get together. We're all there to photograph the same thing and we all have the same eye for what makes a good photo/angle. Or we're taking so many shots that we're bound to get the same one several times.
I wonder what sort of mortar that was, seeing as they were ANA soldiers.
My understanding is the ANA used a mix of old Soviet and surplus US weaponry. I suppose either might explain the failure.
happened due to the 60mm fuze and took 4 guys out. All dead knelling with head down on ground beside their positions that why it was phased out, the 81 can take a hit from another mortar rounds in the barrel with out exploding , happened before
There was an incident with a 60mm exploding on US marines back in 2013. Was a mortarman in the Army at the time, and all of our live fire abilities got put on hold while an investigation happened on the cause (didn’t want us firing anything that could have been from a faulty lot). Wound up being from a double load and improper training/following of procedure, not the ammunition itself. Have seen people fuck that up trigger firing 60s, though it always forked them off and caused them to land short. Not sure why that one decided to blow, but it happened
Tubes were old, but not the fault per the investigation. Double load, CO, XO, company commander all relieved due to poor command and training. Battalion got stood down and absorbed by others. My battalion took some of them, I ended up with the corpsman who was with the guys, and happened to be checking the water bull nearby. Lost his friends, tons of survivors guilt and nothing he could do to save em... it was a horrible situation for everyone. Can never be too safe with live rounds.
This was American soldiers training the ANA. I remember hearing about this when I was serving in fort Bragg. Camera woman may have been from Bragg as well, I don’t recall
Photographer was an American servicewoman. This was the last pic from her.
[clicky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Clayton#:~:text=Spc.,her%20and%20four%20Afghan%20soldiers)
Is this actually her picture? The Wiki article you linked shows a different angle, likely taken by the camera we see in the bottom left. It says she and an Afghan photographer were both taking pictures. This picture might belong to the other one.
Edit: reading a bit further and it seems there is some contention on which photo belongs to which photographer.
Technically a matte box but its a video camera so that’s part of the housing/body. Looks like that upper right corner has the lens shutter switch, so it’s probably a Panasonic cam.
Could be wrong
If you stop down very low or use a filter you can do a long exposure that will effectively be black until the light of the explosion illuminates the scene. There won't be any blur because the light from the explosion is very brief, and you don't have to worry about timing. You can do the same thing to photograph lightning.
Not really any reason to rely on the frequency of your burst matching the boom - close the aperture and lower the iso for the long shutter. The shot times itself with the flash.
Photographer was [SPC Hilda Clayton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Clayton).
She died in 2013 shooting an ANA mortar training exercise that also killed 4 ANA soldiers.
The [Best COMCAM](https://www.55comcam.army.mil/Best-COMCAM/) competition is named after her.
Everyone in the photo including the photographers were killed.
Here's a [News Article](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-army-combat-photographer-photos-hilda-clayton-mortar-explosion-images-kill-her-a7713606.html) about it.
The other 4 are all Afghan National Army soldiers, basically the anti-taliban afghanis we fought alongside
They probably weren't well known or the information of who they were didn't make it back to the US, because those guys got killed all the time.
We didn’t do enough for them. We did evacuate a sizable number and their families to the states though. I have a couple of regular Uber drivers in Eastern WA that were translators for American soldiers over there. Super amazing guys. One of them opened the first afghani restaurant here and it’s pretty good!
Yeah, should have done a lot of things for those guys, as they helped a lot, but instead they were abandoned there, knowing they'll be a target for retribution by the Taliban. And that's how the US treats their allies..
"The Covenant" tells a story about a US soldier fighting to rescue his allied informant after the withdrawal, but unfortunately it is fictionalized and it shows what should have been done instead of what happened.
No, but at least those people who provided information and fought against the enemy, who would obviously be targeted after the withdrawal.. The US could have easily done that, it wouldn't even have put a dent in their trillion dollars military budget. Instead they showed that they shouldn't be relied on as allies..
EDIT: lol "Maybe a HD closeup of people dying should have a NSFW tag" gets downvotes, way to go reddit.
ORIGINAL: So please put a NSFW tag on it so people can choose whether they want to see human bodies exploding? Fuck sakes man, it's r/pics, there's kids scrolling this sub.
Based on no tag, I assumed this was dummies and a demonstration event until reading this comment 🤢
Still alive in the way a photo of a guillotine half way through someone's neck is "still alive". Like yes you're technically right, but it's still pretty grim imo
I appreciate the actual discussion and I see your point, but I disagree about the intellectual dishonesty. The [shockwave of explosives can be ahead of the visible fireball](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fjbx7x4a66em21.jpg), which is touching them. The shockwave is already inside their bodies in this photo.
I only said what I did because I truthfully believe that "Fractions of a second from death, with the means visible and a substantial part of the damage already done" applies to both OPs photo and a guillotine entering the neck. Wasn't trying to misrepresent anything and I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression.
The shockwave is less visible than a blade, but these poor guys are partially blended and it just seemed like something people could use a warning before seeing if they wish.
The shockwave isn't visible. Your mind is constructing that.
Show this to a 5 year old and a picture of a guillitone half way thru someones neck and I bet you 1000 dollars the latter is scarier and more traumatic to them.
Your aversion only comes from your knowledge where as you don't need extrinsic information to know a blade halfway through your neck is bad.
>The shockwave isn't visible. Your mind is constructing that.
I never said it's visible in OPs pic. I know there's no visible shockwave there. My mind isnt constructing anything.
>Show this to a 5 year old and a picture of a guillitone half way thru someones neck and I bet you 1000 dollars the latter is scarier and more traumatic to them.
I also never said that they'd be equally traumatic to a 5 year old. I said I don't think *either* should be shown to a 5 year old, and both for the same reasons. But yes of course they'd find the guillotine pic worse because it's simpler to understand.
>Your aversion only comes from your knowledge...
This part is right! But surely I'm not the only one with this knowledge? I'm a random 30s Canadian with no explosives training and no combat exprience. If I'd rather not have seen it, there's probably a few others too. And I wasn't even saying don't post it, just that it would have been nice to tag it and give people the option. People don't come on r\pics to see people dying. There's tons of combat and gore and uncensored subreddits for amazing photography like this, and I'm glad they exist! But on Pics, this would benefit from a tag, in my opinion, just in case.
I mean ultimately you are right, there is no reason why this shouldn't have a tag as this being on the front page was a cool bummer to run into 30 seconds into opening this dumb website lol. I know its not technically gore, but seeing the last few moments of a persons life was not a cool way to start my evening.
I do enjoy how aggressively this whole thread is a microcosm of reddit with people so lost in the weeds of being 'technically correct' that they lost the plot of why the discussion was happening. That includes me complaining about it. The circle is complete.
You are probably being downvoted because there is not a single dead person in that picture. This is before they died - granted, very shortly before that, but still, there is literally not an ounce of gore in that picture.
I don't see anyone exploding... are you seeing the same picture?
Also r/pics has become an onlyfans promo page so there's bigger fish to fry than a still photo.
Regardless it’s humans in the act of dying. It’s fucked up for some people to see that without warning. I’m not butthurt over it, I just agree with that other guy that it wouldn’t hurt to put a tag onto it and let people decide if they want to see it.
And where are my OF ads? How come I don’t get any?
Maybe if you sort by new, but this was on my front page. I haven't seen a single OF girl on r/pics in the last month when scrolling by hot or top. Plus I'd say some girl's pic with cleavage isn't as jarring as this.
And are you saying this isn't NSFW just because there's no visible guts? It's multiple violent deaths, closeup. Amazing photo but not the right place, at least with no warning. That's all I meant .
You’re 100% right. At first, because it’s not tagged I thought maybe they just burnt their faces pretty bad. But then I find out this is the last second of these peoples lives, including the photographers….made me feel very uneasy.
Thanks I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. We just posting deaths on this sub now and not even tagging it??
Like on r/WatchPeopleDie, sure skip the NSFW tag since there's no actual gore. But this is just pics FFS it's got all ages auto-subscribed to it.
Doesn't justify it in the slightest that people are promoting only fans lol. Absolutely terrible logic. Maybe you're incredibly insensitive to death but a bunch of people a split second before they all die is definitely NSFW. No need to split hairs let's call it what it is.
Just honest question; why did you click on a photo that was titled 'exact moment a mortar shell accidentally explodes' if you weren't ready to look at something where death may be involved? Like did you not expect it to be in a dangerous situation at all? Feel like that wouldn't be a very remarkable photo at all.
Lol of course, I got a shitload of dick pics on here. Was more just meaning that in a PG sub like Pics where people aren't expecting it, stuff like this could use a tag for courtesy (in my opinion, which others don't have to agree with).
I didn't say it's "that bad", just "bad enough to warrant a NSFW tag on a general purpose subreddit like pics", which I absolutely stand by.
It's a close up of multiple deaths. That's not PG. Sure, I know there's WAY worse. Those should have NSFW tags too. "Worse things existing too" is irrelevant.
No one is dead in this photo. It's like saying that a photo of some sailors sitting on the deck of a ship during Pearl Harbor with a Japanese Zero behind them just a split second from firing is a close up of multiple deaths.
The fireball is touching them, and [the shockwave travels ahead of that](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fjbx7x4a66em21.jpg)...so *technically* the shockwave is already through them and they *are* already exploding. Their insides are already in motion, just haven't come flying out the back yet.
JFC! … I was JUST thinking about this horrid tragedy 10 minutes ago while I was driving. These three people died, I believe. iirc, there’s a second pic from slightly farther away, but I cannot recall if that person survived.
iirc, it was a defective shell. The main charge went off instead of just the propelling charge. If you’re asking how exactly that happened on a technical level then I do not know.
This photo kinda reminds me of one of the Ballistic High-Speed guys having a RPG exploded next to his head. That guy is lucky to be alive and sort of well today (still making videos).
Same with me. That video is crazy to watch. He instantly goes limp & unconscious in a matter of milliseconds. Very educational as to the real dangers of any weapon, how fragile life and the human body are. Puts a lot of things into perspective
I don't think it's fragile to get taken out by a high explosive round from an RPG lol. Especially given that those things are made for taking out tanks, much harder than people.
I think messing with anything like this has a high element of danger.
It is objectively an image that is safe for work. It is a disturbing image, but it is not a profane or grotesque one. Without someone telling you, you would have no way of knowing those people are about to die (they're not dead in the photo)
Should a photo of the plane just before it hits the Pentagon be NSFW? It's just a plane. The backstory doesn't suddenly make it NSFW.
Yeah, this is a disturbing photo, it should be. But like you said, we don't tell people not to post photos of smoke pouring out of the twin towers, even though we know exactly what was happening.
nsfw has become synonymous with many things including "disturbing" so you absolutely proved their point. objectively, not all places of work have the same criteria for what is "safe" to be viewed within their establishment. think daycare operator vs strip club manager or police department or hospital.
Well, it means something that can't be shown on a work server.
The idea was not to protect you from what you see but not put sensitive content through a server that might cost someone their job.
The way it's become something so folks don't have to see bad things is missing the point.
It's not that broad, the term assumes white collar IT guys scrolling reddit during work because that's what it's biggest use case is.
Porn would be safe for a strip club, but the word "fuck" wouldn't be safe for a daycare. Obviously NSFW sits somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
Realistically they all are dead. Post should have the tag. If someone posted a picture of someone partway through dying I'd expect the tag, and thats what this is.
Fuck. Imagine you're a photographer and the mot remarkable photograph you ever take is the one of the thing that kills you, far too late to be able to do anything about it.
Live fire training has risks.
This was 2013, iirc they had a hangfire and basically dropped a second round on top of the one that unexpectedly hadn't actually fired as it should've at that point.
The picture is the SHTF result of that.
This... please. This happen while I was deployed in Afghanistan at our small base in Laghman province. Just got hit with a shit ton of memories.
Rest in peace, Spc. Clayton. You impacted so many of us around you.
First, this should have an NSFL tag and be blurred. It is an image of people being killed.
If this is the same event I know of, this was an East Coast USMC unit on a Training Det to the West Coast and this was their first live-fire range. They hadn't trained with mortars in a very long time and should have gone through refresher training.
Instead, their (brand new) Battalion Commander wanted them to run a combat simulation or Immediate Action Drill after 2 days in the field with continuous drills and little to no sleep. The CO put pressure on them to make it as realistic and extreme as possible, to include rapid double-firing, where the loader has a mortar round in each hand and basically windmill-loads them, 1-*fire*-2-*fire*, for back-to-back launches with the first round launching before the second round is over the tube.
Obviously, this is incredibly dangerous and possibly against regulations (it's been awhile). The biggest risk is what happened here: the loader double-loaded the rounds, 1-2-*fire*-***detonate***, killing everyone in and out of the frame within the lethal radius.
Massive investigation followed; the CO was relieved and court-martialed, others in the chain of command were also relieved, and everyone up to the 2MarDiv Commanding General were under scrutiny for quite some time after for poor command climate.
None of which makes up for this tragic loss, but at least the Marine Corps held some of those responsible accountable.
Edit: just read the link OP provided, this was an unrelated event within the US Army, though tragically similar to the anecdote above.
It was an ANA exercise, but one of the photographers killed was 22 year old U.S. Army Spc. Hilda Clayton
[Army releases images of combat photographer’s final moments before fatal blast
](https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2017-05-01/army-releases-images-of-combat-photographer%E2%80%99s-final-moments-before-fatal-blast-1532837.html1)
I remember that being a big sticking point when I went through ITB. That shit was taking seriously in all training we did with the 81s, even with a 10+ round immediate FFE on a FPF. if any A gunner was caught with 2 rounds in their hand it was an immediate cease fire and they'd get their shit pushed in.
Though I understand this was an explanation for a different incident, I appreciate the summary. Do you know if the pic in question was also double-loading accident?
FU for not tagging this NSFW...
I don't care about blood. Just look at those faces. Completely unsuspecting of what's to happen. Haunting image - I hate it and you for not tagging it up properly.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/01/22/investigation-shows-hawthorne-blast-that-killed-7-marines-was-caused-by-loading-two-mortar-rounds-into-mortar-tube/4777115/
He’s the article on a very unfortunate accident
I feel like this is more likely a still pulled from a video based on the quality of the rest of the image. Though it’s also hard to imagine the blast would be so crisp if it was shot at at 180 degree shutter at 24fps or 30 fps so it’s actually kind of hard to say.
That's a pretty awesome picture honestly. The coincidence of something like this happening + the shear luck that the file/film avoided destruction/corrupted and remained usable
Damn :( this looks like one of those scene where the time stops and the cam starts going around
Reminds me of an driving PSA where time stops just as two cars are about to collide and the drivers get out and talk.
That video wreaks me every time I see it. “Come on man my family is in the car” “Sorry, I’m just going to fast to stop” I get little choked up just describing it here. It is a powerful [video](https://youtu.be/3qNjt04bpQM?si=HgEnBkLAI_ZcBtOQ)
Yeah, that's a bad one, especially if you h have little kids yourself.
Thanks for the warning, won't be watching that.
Wow, first time seeing that video and just... Wow.
Hi, I’m Troy McClure.
one of those movies where the main character dies in the first scene, and then the whole movie is how he ended up there. The camera woman died IIRC together with all the soldiers https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/03/us-army-photographer-hilda-clayton-photo-death
The image in that article isn’t from the same vantage point. What exactly happened here? In OP’s image there is a videographer with a low angle on the left bottom side of the frame. So there is footage of the incident..possibly
The article mentions another photographer so that’s somehow two photos taken at the same time?
You can see the other camera in the bottom left of this photo
Yes, but it’s clearly a video camera in the frame. The image used on the guardian article is a clip from a video. You can tell by the aliasing. I think there’s footage of this.
It's actually pretty normal for that to happen. I'm a war photographer (journalist rather than army) and I've had to compare with my colleague countless times so we don't end up sending doubles of basically the same thing. This happens whenever photographers get together. We're all there to photograph the same thing and we all have the same eye for what makes a good photo/angle. Or we're taking so many shots that we're bound to get the same one several times.
But it’s clearly a video camera in the frame. I think there’s footage of this.
Probably, but you can just use stills as well. Probably the footage (if any) was used in the investigation but won't be released for various reasons.
If I could save time in a bottle The first thing that I'd like to do...
Halo 3 Theater Mode
I wonder what sort of mortar that was, seeing as they were ANA soldiers. My understanding is the ANA used a mix of old Soviet and surplus US weaponry. I suppose either might explain the failure.
It would have to be a 60mm company level mortar. It’s not tall enough to be 81 or 120.
Hangfiring 60mm. Round number one hit round number two as it was being loaded.
happened due to the 60mm fuze and took 4 guys out. All dead knelling with head down on ground beside their positions that why it was phased out, the 81 can take a hit from another mortar rounds in the barrel with out exploding , happened before
Must not have been American. Our rounds don't arm until they are in the air, for I think a hundred meters or so.
There was an incident with a 60mm exploding on US marines back in 2013. Was a mortarman in the Army at the time, and all of our live fire abilities got put on hold while an investigation happened on the cause (didn’t want us firing anything that could have been from a faulty lot). Wound up being from a double load and improper training/following of procedure, not the ammunition itself. Have seen people fuck that up trigger firing 60s, though it always forked them off and caused them to land short. Not sure why that one decided to blow, but it happened
Was roommates with a Lance Corporal that saw it happen, was far enough away to survive, but close enough to get a TBI from it, so he says.
That was a shitty accident pretty sure it was with 1/9. I want to say they found cracks in some tubes when they did the safety stand down for it.
Tubes were old, but not the fault per the investigation. Double load, CO, XO, company commander all relieved due to poor command and training. Battalion got stood down and absorbed by others. My battalion took some of them, I ended up with the corpsman who was with the guys, and happened to be checking the water bull nearby. Lost his friends, tons of survivors guilt and nothing he could do to save em... it was a horrible situation for everyone. Can never be too safe with live rounds.
Sorry I should have worded that better, we got a handful of them great guys. It was a shitty situation
appreciate you both
This was American soldiers training the ANA. I remember hearing about this when I was serving in fort Bragg. Camera woman may have been from Bragg as well, I don’t recall
Damn... Sad af
Photographer was an American servicewoman. This was the last pic from her. [clicky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Clayton#:~:text=Spc.,her%20and%20four%20Afghan%20soldiers)
Is this actually her picture? The Wiki article you linked shows a different angle, likely taken by the camera we see in the bottom left. It says she and an Afghan photographer were both taking pictures. This picture might belong to the other one. Edit: reading a bit further and it seems there is some contention on which photo belongs to which photographer.
Looks like a woman's hand in the bottom left. I'd guess this is the Afghan soldier's photo, assuming they were male..
I think it's safe to assume that the Afghan soldier was male.
Phew, Thanks....i was feeling so unsafe.
That's a video camera with a matte box and microphone clip on it
Technically a matte box but its a video camera so that’s part of the housing/body. Looks like that upper right corner has the lens shutter switch, so it’s probably a Panasonic cam. Could be wrong
Bro it literally says Sony on the hand strap
He did say he could be wrong…
Ah sorry I thought that said “sonic”
You can see 1.5 fingers and know its a womans hand?
This link shows the angle of the other camera seen in this photo.
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Or just a long shutter with low exposure given how bright the muzzle flash they both knew was coming.
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If you stop down very low or use a filter you can do a long exposure that will effectively be black until the light of the explosion illuminates the scene. There won't be any blur because the light from the explosion is very brief, and you don't have to worry about timing. You can do the same thing to photograph lightning.
This seems accurate for tripod cameras but not handheld.
Well it depends on how long the flash is. For lightning it would probably work, the flash is usually about 1/250 apparently.
Not really any reason to rely on the frequency of your burst matching the boom - close the aperture and lower the iso for the long shutter. The shot times itself with the flash.
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I don't think you understand just how quick a muzzle flash is that they're trying to catch.
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Says the one who doesn't understand how flashes have always worked.
I guess it's just burst mode.
Unfortunately the mortar was too
Or video…
She has a barracks building named after her on Fort Eisenhower ( formerly Gordon) the 25 series base.
Photographer was [SPC Hilda Clayton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilda_Clayton). She died in 2013 shooting an ANA mortar training exercise that also killed 4 ANA soldiers. The [Best COMCAM](https://www.55comcam.army.mil/Best-COMCAM/) competition is named after her.
Thanks for keeping her name and memory alive.
Everyone in the photo including the photographers were killed. Here's a [News Article](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-army-combat-photographer-photos-hilda-clayton-mortar-explosion-images-kill-her-a7713606.html) about it.
What about the other 4 people that died? Kinda strange they don't at least mention them by name and age.
The other 4 are all Afghan National Army soldiers, basically the anti-taliban afghanis we fought alongside They probably weren't well known or the information of who they were didn't make it back to the US, because those guys got killed all the time.
Seems like the anti talib guys were the ones we should have been keeping alive i dont know tho
We didn’t do enough for them. We did evacuate a sizable number and their families to the states though. I have a couple of regular Uber drivers in Eastern WA that were translators for American soldiers over there. Super amazing guys. One of them opened the first afghani restaurant here and it’s pretty good!
Afghan*
My apologies. You’re correct.
Talk about Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Yeah, should have done a lot of things for those guys, as they helped a lot, but instead they were abandoned there, knowing they'll be a target for retribution by the Taliban. And that's how the US treats their allies.. "The Covenant" tells a story about a US soldier fighting to rescue his allied informant after the withdrawal, but unfortunately it is fictionalized and it shows what should have been done instead of what happened.
Can't evacuate an entire country sadly
No, but at least those people who provided information and fought against the enemy, who would obviously be targeted after the withdrawal.. The US could have easily done that, it wouldn't even have put a dent in their trillion dollars military budget. Instead they showed that they shouldn't be relied on as allies..
I mean we do it everywhere. We did it in vietnam too.
Probably to protect the families of the victims
I think you're on to something. Working with Americans can't be a good look in that region.
EDIT: lol "Maybe a HD closeup of people dying should have a NSFW tag" gets downvotes, way to go reddit. ORIGINAL: So please put a NSFW tag on it so people can choose whether they want to see human bodies exploding? Fuck sakes man, it's r/pics, there's kids scrolling this sub. Based on no tag, I assumed this was dummies and a demonstration event until reading this comment 🤢
Two hours has passed, fuck them kids.
*Do not fuck the kids.
Fuck ‘em figuratively. Not literally.
I’d like to reiterate this
We don’t diddle kids
Quick, someone write a song about it
Are you implying that you're replying to a goat fucker?
Allegedly
The shockwave hasn't reached them yet. If it's any consolation they're still alive in this picture.
Still alive in the way a photo of a guillotine half way through someone's neck is "still alive". Like yes you're technically right, but it's still pretty grim imo
Before entering the neck sure but to say 'halfway through' the neck is being intellectually dishonest.
I appreciate the actual discussion and I see your point, but I disagree about the intellectual dishonesty. The [shockwave of explosives can be ahead of the visible fireball](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fjbx7x4a66em21.jpg), which is touching them. The shockwave is already inside their bodies in this photo. I only said what I did because I truthfully believe that "Fractions of a second from death, with the means visible and a substantial part of the damage already done" applies to both OPs photo and a guillotine entering the neck. Wasn't trying to misrepresent anything and I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression. The shockwave is less visible than a blade, but these poor guys are partially blended and it just seemed like something people could use a warning before seeing if they wish.
Fair enough. Maybe mods can add a "partially blended" flair.
The shockwave isn't visible. Your mind is constructing that. Show this to a 5 year old and a picture of a guillitone half way thru someones neck and I bet you 1000 dollars the latter is scarier and more traumatic to them. Your aversion only comes from your knowledge where as you don't need extrinsic information to know a blade halfway through your neck is bad.
>The shockwave isn't visible. Your mind is constructing that. I never said it's visible in OPs pic. I know there's no visible shockwave there. My mind isnt constructing anything. >Show this to a 5 year old and a picture of a guillitone half way thru someones neck and I bet you 1000 dollars the latter is scarier and more traumatic to them. I also never said that they'd be equally traumatic to a 5 year old. I said I don't think *either* should be shown to a 5 year old, and both for the same reasons. But yes of course they'd find the guillotine pic worse because it's simpler to understand. >Your aversion only comes from your knowledge... This part is right! But surely I'm not the only one with this knowledge? I'm a random 30s Canadian with no explosives training and no combat exprience. If I'd rather not have seen it, there's probably a few others too. And I wasn't even saying don't post it, just that it would have been nice to tag it and give people the option. People don't come on r\pics to see people dying. There's tons of combat and gore and uncensored subreddits for amazing photography like this, and I'm glad they exist! But on Pics, this would benefit from a tag, in my opinion, just in case.
I mean ultimately you are right, there is no reason why this shouldn't have a tag as this being on the front page was a cool bummer to run into 30 seconds into opening this dumb website lol. I know its not technically gore, but seeing the last few moments of a persons life was not a cool way to start my evening. I do enjoy how aggressively this whole thread is a microcosm of reddit with people so lost in the weeds of being 'technically correct' that they lost the plot of why the discussion was happening. That includes me complaining about it. The circle is complete.
The guy in the top right is very much not alive here
You are probably being downvoted because there is not a single dead person in that picture. This is before they died - granted, very shortly before that, but still, there is literally not an ounce of gore in that picture.
Doesn’t really show human bodies exploding, it isn’t a video…
I don't see anyone exploding... are you seeing the same picture? Also r/pics has become an onlyfans promo page so there's bigger fish to fry than a still photo.
You think seeing a girl promoting her only fans is a bigger deal than seeing humans exploding? Are you fucked?
I mean if this photo actually showed that part then no. But it's not. It's clearly when it exploded, BEFORE they died.
Regardless it’s humans in the act of dying. It’s fucked up for some people to see that without warning. I’m not butthurt over it, I just agree with that other guy that it wouldn’t hurt to put a tag onto it and let people decide if they want to see it. And where are my OF ads? How come I don’t get any?
Maybe if you sort by new, but this was on my front page. I haven't seen a single OF girl on r/pics in the last month when scrolling by hot or top. Plus I'd say some girl's pic with cleavage isn't as jarring as this. And are you saying this isn't NSFW just because there's no visible guts? It's multiple violent deaths, closeup. Amazing photo but not the right place, at least with no warning. That's all I meant .
You’re 100% right. At first, because it’s not tagged I thought maybe they just burnt their faces pretty bad. But then I find out this is the last second of these peoples lives, including the photographers….made me feel very uneasy.
Thanks I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. We just posting deaths on this sub now and not even tagging it?? Like on r/WatchPeopleDie, sure skip the NSFW tag since there's no actual gore. But this is just pics FFS it's got all ages auto-subscribed to it.
They are not dead in this photo
Doesn't justify it in the slightest that people are promoting only fans lol. Absolutely terrible logic. Maybe you're incredibly insensitive to death but a bunch of people a split second before they all die is definitely NSFW. No need to split hairs let's call it what it is.
I mean, it’s sensitive, and I think a warning would be appropriate, but it’s not “NSFW”. There is nothing visually inappropriate in the photo.
How on earth am i supporting it lmao?
I'm an adult and I wasn't really in the mood to see some people's last milliseconds of life
Just honest question; why did you click on a photo that was titled 'exact moment a mortar shell accidentally explodes' if you weren't ready to look at something where death may be involved? Like did you not expect it to be in a dangerous situation at all? Feel like that wouldn't be a very remarkable photo at all.
Probably don't ever let your kids on Reddit for as long as humanly possible.
Lol of course, I got a shitload of dick pics on here. Was more just meaning that in a PG sub like Pics where people aren't expecting it, stuff like this could use a tag for courtesy (in my opinion, which others don't have to agree with).
"Hey look at my dick" - You trying to talk about Reddit NSFW tags
Name checks out...
Relax man, it’s not that bad lol
I didn't say it's "that bad", just "bad enough to warrant a NSFW tag on a general purpose subreddit like pics", which I absolutely stand by. It's a close up of multiple deaths. That's not PG. Sure, I know there's WAY worse. Those should have NSFW tags too. "Worse things existing too" is irrelevant.
No one is dead in this photo. It's like saying that a photo of some sailors sitting on the deck of a ship during Pearl Harbor with a Japanese Zero behind them just a split second from firing is a close up of multiple deaths.
Technically they are about to explode and not exploding right now 🙂
The fireball is touching them, and [the shockwave travels ahead of that](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fjbx7x4a66em21.jpg)...so *technically* the shockwave is already through them and they *are* already exploding. Their insides are already in motion, just haven't come flying out the back yet.
That is absolutely not what I would ever assume from that title, but yeah, it probably should have a tag.
Yeah this definitely needs to be tagged. Doesn't matter how bad it is or isn't these people are dying right in this moment.
I thought the cameraman would always survive. This is sad. RIP
Damn. I hope the initial blast killed them and they didn’t suffer. That’s genuinely so tragic.
The photographer died instantly. Don’t know about the other 3.
Kinda weird how dissociative the internet made us to the real world, this just looks like a snapshot from a movie
Can we assume these poor people lost their lives?
Yes, all of them including the photographer and people out of view.
Horrifying.
How tragic.
JFC! … I was JUST thinking about this horrid tragedy 10 minutes ago while I was driving. These three people died, I believe. iirc, there’s a second pic from slightly farther away, but I cannot recall if that person survived.
Do you perhaps know how a mortar can fail in this fashion?
iirc, it was a defective shell. The main charge went off instead of just the propelling charge. If you’re asking how exactly that happened on a technical level then I do not know.
Oh man, that should be a super rare thing I assume.
There is so much motion in such a still photograph. It’s sad but mesmerizing
This photo kinda reminds me of one of the Ballistic High-Speed guys having a RPG exploded next to his head. That guy is lucky to be alive and sort of well today (still making videos).
Same with me. That video is crazy to watch. He instantly goes limp & unconscious in a matter of milliseconds. Very educational as to the real dangers of any weapon, how fragile life and the human body are. Puts a lot of things into perspective
I don't think it's fragile to get taken out by a high explosive round from an RPG lol. Especially given that those things are made for taking out tanks, much harder than people. I think messing with anything like this has a high element of danger.
Damn, those aren't even aware yet!
Everyone in this photo is dead.
I think a closeup of people being blown up and dying should have a NSFW tag, at least in a general purpose PG subreddit. Just saying.
It is objectively an image that is safe for work. It is a disturbing image, but it is not a profane or grotesque one. Without someone telling you, you would have no way of knowing those people are about to die (they're not dead in the photo) Should a photo of the plane just before it hits the Pentagon be NSFW? It's just a plane. The backstory doesn't suddenly make it NSFW.
Yeah, this is a disturbing photo, it should be. But like you said, we don't tell people not to post photos of smoke pouring out of the twin towers, even though we know exactly what was happening.
nsfw has become synonymous with many things including "disturbing" so you absolutely proved their point. objectively, not all places of work have the same criteria for what is "safe" to be viewed within their establishment. think daycare operator vs strip club manager or police department or hospital.
Well, it means something that can't be shown on a work server. The idea was not to protect you from what you see but not put sensitive content through a server that might cost someone their job. The way it's become something so folks don't have to see bad things is missing the point.
NSFW means not safe to be shown on a work laptop where coworkers may also see it.
It's not that broad, the term assumes white collar IT guys scrolling reddit during work because that's what it's biggest use case is. Porn would be safe for a strip club, but the word "fuck" wouldn't be safe for a daycare. Obviously NSFW sits somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
This image would be non problematic for any of those jobs because anyone seeing it wouldn't have the backstory
Nothing grotesque in this frame.
Half a second later and it would be on medical gore. So you are not wrong. But you are not right.
Fair take. Didn't hurt my feelings but i can see how someone wouldn't want to see this.
Realistically none of them are dead yet
Realistically they all are dead. Post should have the tag. If someone posted a picture of someone partway through dying I'd expect the tag, and thats what this is.
Unless photographs truly capture a moment in time by stopping time for all in the frame, then I expect all of them are dead by now.
Every photo ever taken is of someone who will die afterwards
There's always someone crying about the NSFW tag in the comments.... Username checks out
Damn… that’s a rough way to go.
All dead?
Yes
Wow…I mean, just wow
They look like mannequins especially the one on the right
God that’s horrible.
Fuck. Imagine you're a photographer and the mot remarkable photograph you ever take is the one of the thing that kills you, far too late to be able to do anything about it.
How lethal is this scenario? I know the probability of death is.. high..
All four individuals unfortunately died. So I would say highly lethal considering it was an explosion.
Why did it blow up? Equipment failure? Operator error? Sabotage? Article didn’t say.
Live fire training has risks. This was 2013, iirc they had a hangfire and basically dropped a second round on top of the one that unexpectedly hadn't actually fired as it should've at that point. The picture is the SHTF result of that.
They all died😢
What are the reasons we have combat photographers?
Documentation... Would you rather big governments NOT document their war activity?
Tragic af....RIP
I’m getting terminator 2 vibes when Sarah Connor is at the chain link fence
What the fuck
Please add a trigger warning for vets and anyone who could be PTSD affected. Thank you. EDIT. Thank you OP for the added warning and masked photo.
This... please. This happen while I was deployed in Afghanistan at our small base in Laghman province. Just got hit with a shit ton of memories. Rest in peace, Spc. Clayton. You impacted so many of us around you.
Sorry for your pain and any loss. Spc. Clayton is honored by your sentiments.
The title isn't enough if a warning? It's literally saying exactly what's in the picture
No, It literally doesn’t. Since it omits the death part, no, it’s absolutely not enough warning.
Add the appropriate tags.
First, this should have an NSFL tag and be blurred. It is an image of people being killed. If this is the same event I know of, this was an East Coast USMC unit on a Training Det to the West Coast and this was their first live-fire range. They hadn't trained with mortars in a very long time and should have gone through refresher training. Instead, their (brand new) Battalion Commander wanted them to run a combat simulation or Immediate Action Drill after 2 days in the field with continuous drills and little to no sleep. The CO put pressure on them to make it as realistic and extreme as possible, to include rapid double-firing, where the loader has a mortar round in each hand and basically windmill-loads them, 1-*fire*-2-*fire*, for back-to-back launches with the first round launching before the second round is over the tube. Obviously, this is incredibly dangerous and possibly against regulations (it's been awhile). The biggest risk is what happened here: the loader double-loaded the rounds, 1-2-*fire*-***detonate***, killing everyone in and out of the frame within the lethal radius. Massive investigation followed; the CO was relieved and court-martialed, others in the chain of command were also relieved, and everyone up to the 2MarDiv Commanding General were under scrutiny for quite some time after for poor command climate. None of which makes up for this tragic loss, but at least the Marine Corps held some of those responsible accountable. Edit: just read the link OP provided, this was an unrelated event within the US Army, though tragically similar to the anecdote above.
This is ANA in Afghanistan
It was an ANA exercise, but one of the photographers killed was 22 year old U.S. Army Spc. Hilda Clayton [Army releases images of combat photographer’s final moments before fatal blast ](https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2017-05-01/army-releases-images-of-combat-photographer%E2%80%99s-final-moments-before-fatal-blast-1532837.html1)
This is the news article about the photo: https://arynews.tv/us-army-photographer-captures-death-mortar-explosion/
I remember that being a big sticking point when I went through ITB. That shit was taking seriously in all training we did with the 81s, even with a 10+ round immediate FFE on a FPF. if any A gunner was caught with 2 rounds in their hand it was an immediate cease fire and they'd get their shit pushed in.
Though I understand this was an explanation for a different incident, I appreciate the summary. Do you know if the pic in question was also double-loading accident?
They ded.
FU for not tagging this NSFW... I don't care about blood. Just look at those faces. Completely unsuspecting of what's to happen. Haunting image - I hate it and you for not tagging it up properly.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/01/22/investigation-shows-hawthorne-blast-that-killed-7-marines-was-caused-by-loading-two-mortar-rounds-into-mortar-tube/4777115/ He’s the article on a very unfortunate accident
Fuckkk all during training...ugh
Did they live ?
RIP Hilda Clayton
I feel like this is more likely a still pulled from a video based on the quality of the rest of the image. Though it’s also hard to imagine the blast would be so crisp if it was shot at at 180 degree shutter at 24fps or 30 fps so it’s actually kind of hard to say.
The guy on the right looks like a G.I. Joe toy
They’re done they’re fine, they are hero’s now.
Double feed. Didn't give the first round time to fire, so they loaded the other one in.
This looks like a Rage Against The Machine album cover.
How did the camera survive the blast if the photographer didn’t?
That's a pretty awesome picture honestly. The coincidence of something like this happening + the shear luck that the file/film avoided destruction/corrupted and remained usable