By Deborah Brennan, CalMatters
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California lawmakers are demanding answers after a live fire demonstration over Camp Pendleton Saturday led to a misfire that rained shrapnel on Interstate 5, striking two California Highway Patrol vehicles.
An artillery shell exploded over the freeway during a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps, attended by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Pieces of shrapnel scattered on the closed roadway and struck a patrol vehicle and motorcycle.
“I was very disappointed, because I hoped we could celebrate the Marine Corps without undue risk,” Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat from San Clemente and Carlsbad who represents the district including Camp Pendleton, told CalMatters. “I’m led to believe the decision-making did not put public safety first. That’s why we’re calling for a full investigation.”
On Wednesday Levin sent a letter signed by 26 California Congress members and the state’s two senators to Hegseth, asking who decided to shoot live artillery over the freeway, and how authorities planned for the safety risks.
“While we are relieved no one was injured, we are deeply concerned by the decision-making that led to this incident,” Levin wrote.
The mishap deepened conflicts between President Donald Trump and California leaders including Gov. Gavin Newsom, with some Republicans chastizing Newsom for closing the freeway during the live fire exercise. Other local leaders were exasperated by an unorthodox military display that they believe was orchestrated for the benefit of Trump administration officials.
“It’s almost absurd that this would be acceptable,” California Sen. Catherine Blakespear, an Encinitas Democrat whose district includes Camp Pendleton, told CalMatters. “And for what? There’s no military benefit. There’s no community benefit. It’s posturing with militaristic bluster at the expense of the safety and well-being of the community.”
The Marine Corp’s 250th birthday party
On Saturday Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton held a demonstration featuring aircraft, ships, and amphibious assault vehicles to celebrate the milestone anniversary. It involved firing artillery across the coastal freeway in a planned demonstration of 60 rounds, according to the CHP incident report.
That location was unusual, military and public safety officials said. Although live fire training is routine, it usually takes place on designated ranges within the 125,000 acre base in North County San Diego.
“It is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur over an active freeway,” CHP Border Division Chief Tony Coronado said in a statement Sunday. “As a Marine myself, I have tremendous respect for our military partners, but my foremost responsibility is ensuring the safety of the people of California and the officers who protect them.”
The first round launched at 1:46 p.m. Saturday from M777 Howitzers on a beach west of Interstate 5 toward the east, the incident report stated. That artillery round failed to clear the roadway and detonated midflight near Interstate 5 southbound, sending shrapnel flying toward protective service details assigned to the vice president. After that, the exercise was halted and no more munitions were fired.
An officer described hearing what sounded like “pebbles” falling on his CHP BMW motorcycle, and other shards struck an empty Ford patrol vehicle. The two officers who had driven the vehicle saw a two inch by half inch piece of shrapnel on the hood, which left a small dent or scratch. Photos in the incident reports show the patrol car struck by shrapnel, and an officer holding the metal shards.
The CHP called for additional review of the planning, communication and coordination between state and federal partners about the freeway closure and public safety. The Marine Corps is also investigating the incident, the Washington Post reported.
Levin said he hoped the Marine Corps anniversary would bring the country together to honor the force’s 250 year history: “Our Marines deserve to be celebrated without compromising these ideals.”
A risky exercise
The incident snarled traffic for hours on the freeway, which Newsom had ordered closed for the exercise. And it startled residents in San Diego and Orange Counties, who are accustomed to noise from military exercises, but didn’t expect one to take place over a civilian transportation corridor. Some shared photos of surreal highway signs warning of the live fire event.
“Artillery on base is normal,” Levin said. “I hear it all the time from my house. But everything we’ve seen is that firing over the freeway is not how this ordinarily works. Common sense tells us it’s much riskier to fire over the freeway.”
Ian Bennett, a retired Army artillery officer who served in Iraq in 2003, said military leaders plan for every facet of munitions exercises, from gun settings and direction to range conditions and weather.
“You want to make sure that everything is done safely because you don’t want to have a mishap offramp all the good that you’re doing,” Bennett said.
Live fire exercises involve multiple dry fire rehearsals and any that affect civilians or take place in sensitive areas require extra coordination to make sure there are no surprises, he said.
“I’ve never had cause to shoot over a major road during training,” Bennett said. “From my personal perspective, that’s not something I would consider.”
Miscommunications before the mishap
San Diego leaders described miscommunications about the live fire demonstration at Camp Pendleton in the days beforehand, with some elected officials saying they weren’t in the loop.
“If there was coordination, I would expect it would include my office,” Blakespear said. “We weren’t even informed or invited to the event.”
Last Wednesday the Marine Corps issued a statement assuring the public that live fire demonstrations would take place on approved training ranges and comply with established safety protocols.
But that evening, Levin voiced concern that parts of Interstate 5 could be closed in both directions “to accommodate events tied to anything partisan or political.”
Leaders in Oceanside, the city south of the base, said there was conflicting and changing information about the demonstration until the morning of the event.
“I was in planning for probably a month to a month and a half out, and there were a lot of unknowns,” Oceanside Police Department Assistant Chief John McKean said. “The government doesn’t tell you a whole lot of stuff out front, other than we’re coming out and we want a big party.”
The day before, the word was that the freeway would remain open, Bennett said. He awoke to a phone call at 6:30 a.m. Saturday to learn it would be shut.
Live fire exercise fuels political feuds
In a statement Saturday, Newsom announced the freeway closure, describing the live fire exercise as a show of force meant to intimidate Trump’s opponents, thousands of whom were demonstrating at “No Kings” protests throughout San Diego the same day.
“The President is putting his ego over responsibility with this disregard for public safety,” Newsom wrote. “Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous.”
All lanes in an area along the base were scheduled to close for about four hours, McKean said, but they were ultimately shut for just under an hour, between about 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
McKean, who served in the Marines, said it’s not typical but not unprecedented to shoot across a roadway. Safety concerns include not only misplaced explosions but also noise distractions, he said.
“It’s more of scaring people with the large percussion that comes from the big boom right in front of you,” he said. “I don’t think they do it that often.”
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents East County San Diego, complained on X that Newsom overruled “the best-trained and most-experienced leaders of our Marine Corps” to shut down the freeway and denounced the closure as “a spiteful publicity stunt… to ruin the occasion.”
After the errant explosion, Issa’s office said the danger was blown out of proportion.
“The media don’t need to amplify these comic exaggerations,” Issa’s spokesperson Jonathan Wilcox wrote in an email to CalMatters. “*This* is what shut the freeway down for several hours? Congressman Issa knows that a real governor — whether Republican Pete Wilson or Democrat Jerry Brown — would never have mislead (sic) the public and exploited a minimal incident for some attempted partisan gain.”
Levin acknowledged that as the minority party Democrats have fewer levers to get answers to questions about the misfire at Camp Pendleton. But he said he’ll use his role on the House Committee on Appropriations to keep up pressure.
“The administration heard safety warnings from the Marine Corps, and completely ignored them,” he said. “That would mean JD Vance and Pete Hegseth cared more about their demonstration than the safety of Marines, the safety of communities. So we need to push for answers and accountability.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
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