Re: Range Fires

["Edmund W. Libby" <elibby@CDRA.APGEA.ARMY.MIL>]

Without being able to answer for everything that was ever fired at 
Grafenwoehr (and Graf was a major German Army training area from well before WWI until the end  of WWII), I can say that from the start of the use of DU rounds in tanks, it was general US policy not to fire DU tank rounds in training at Graf, or elsewhere
, for that matter -- due to DU chemical hazard issues as well as the extreme range of the rounds. US troops used, and use today, shorter ranged "training practice (TP)" rounds, which have steel penetrators. I do not recall ANY firings of DU tank rounds at
 Graf during my tenure in Germany (as I recall, unless specially coordinated, that would have been grounds for court martial). I can't answer for A-10s.

Despite what many readers may believe, a good deal of thought and effort 
went, and continues to go, into ensuring safe and environmentally sound training. It should also be noted that US training activities in Germany are overseen by Host Nation authorities.

COL E.W. Libby, Missile, Munitions, and Armament Officer for US VII Corps, 
1987-89.