It said shooting shells over Interstate 5 as part of a celebration was no big deal. Then, oops, one exploded over what was thankfully an empty freeway.
Californians have a right to be angry about the last-minute closure of Interstate 5 through Camp Pendleton on Saturday. San Diego is my hometown, and I have spent countless Saturdays traversing that particular stretch of highway. On the typical weekend afternoon, the road connecting California’s two biggest cities through the Marine Corps base is a nightmare. Throw in an accident, stalled big rig or even a random piece of furniture left in lanes, and it becomes a shit show from which you cannot escape.
The 17-mile stretch is hemmed in on one side by the Pacific Ocean, only a stone’s throw away at some points, and nothing but undeveloped hills extending for miles to the east. It’s a rare vision of pre-conquest California, but also the only way to travel by land between San Diego and the rest of the state without detouring miles inland to Interstate 15. So it’s no surprise the brief closure resulted in horrible traffic in southern Orange County and northern San Diego County.
But drivers should make sure they direct their fury appropriately.
At the time, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hasty decision to shut down the freeway might have seemed like a politically motivated overreaction to a planned live-fire demonstration as part of a Marines Corp 250th anniversary celebration attended by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Sure, some rounds will fly over the freeway, Marine Corps officials acknowledged. No biggie; we do it all the time, they said — though apparently that was news to the California Highway Patrol, which said it had never heard of such a thing. Regardless, a freeway closure was not necessary because, according to the Marines, all “air, surface and ground movements are scripted and rehearsed in accordance with standard operating procedures and established checklists.”
Still, a 100-pound, 155-mm shell exploded over the freeway Saturday, presumably an accident, dropping metal debris. As it was, the only injury was to a CHP vehicle parked on an offramp, part of the detail that had escorted Vance to the base for the celebration and was waiting for it to end.
So it was a good call by California to shut down the 5, and a dumb move by Marine Corps officials to think it would be no big deal to shoot live artillery over a major freeway. What were they thinking?
I shudder to think of that explosion and rain of debris happening above the normal Saturday traffic flow, when all eight lanes would be filled with big rigs, buses, RVs, SUVs and every other vehicle you can imagine, many of them taking advantage of the lack of feeder roads to cruise at speeds well above 80 mph. It could have been its own kind of carmageddon.
In all my hours over a lifetime driving though Camp Pendleton, I have noticed military activity only one time: All lanes of traffic slowed to a crawl when drivers caught sight of a couple tanks bumping down a nearby dirt road. If those tanks had turned and started firing in our direction, I can’t even imagine the ensuing fear, confusion and absolute chaos that would have caused.
Next time this administration, so fond of military pageantry on U.S. soil, wants to put on another live-fire show in California, maybe it could be a little less blasé about its potential harm to civilians.
