The impact areas for 155mm artillery training is on the far eastern side of Pendleton. The point of the 155 artillery training would be to support units farther inland not just at the beach environment.
The Marines felt confident enough to fire rounds over the Freeway Friday evening and the interstate was not closed. So why would firing over a highway be perfectly safe in Sweden but not in the US?
To prepare for Saturday’s event, artillery rounds from M777 howitzers were fired from Red Beach east over Interstate 5 on Friday evening as a test run, said Capt. Gregory Dreibelbis, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is based at Camp Pendleton. Vehicular traffic along the interstate was not closed off while the artillery guns were firing, he said in a statement.
“M777 artillery pieces have historically been fired during routine training from land-based artillery firing points west of I-5 into impact areas east of the interstate within existing safety protocols and without the need to close the route,” Capt. Dreibelbis said. He called the test firings an “established and safe practice” as a rehearsal for Saturday’s event.