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JBSA News
NEWS | Feb. 4, 2019

Weapons safety team ensures proper handling of JBSA munitions

By Mary Nell Sanchez 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

In 1963, a munitions storage at JBSA-Lackland Medina Annex caught on fire and exploded. The resulting impact could be felt miles away. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.

 

The 502nd Air Base Wing weapons safety team wants the military munitions explosion that happened about 55 years ago to never happen again.

 

While there’s still a whole lot of firepower to watch over, the possibility of another incident has dropped because of safety measures now in place. 

 

“We have the largest munitions storage area in the Department of Defense,” said Terry Todd, 502 ABW occupational safety manager.

 

There are storage facilities at JBSA-Lackland, JBSA-Randolph and JBSA-Camp Bullis, which support various training missions across JBSA.

 

About 400,000 rounds of ammunition is housed at the JBSA-Lackland Medina Annex, said Michael Horstman, 502nd ABW weapons safety manager.

 

Other items stored are smoke grenades, flashbangs, M-16’s, 9-millimeter weapons and other small munitions. The storage supports not just the 502nd ABW, but it also stores munitions for JBSA’s mission partners.

 

The safety team makes sure these items are stored securely in accordance with federal regulations.

 

“Any procedures that have been developed and standardized across the DOD are being followed,” Todd added.

 

The weapons safety team conducts an annual investigation and sometimes spot inspections to insure everything and everyone is secure.

Some of the basic safety checks include insuring that all munitions are housed at a safe distance from the general population and that the grass in the storage area doesn’t get too high, creating a fire hazard. They also check that transport vehicles have the proper placards indicating ammunitions are on board along with two fire extinguishers.

 

“Generally everything’s going really well and then you find something that is not quite right and fix it,” Horstman said.

 

The goal of the safety team is, at the end of the day, to send everyone home the same way they came in, Todd said.