As usual tons of questions, few to no answers.
For what it's worth, here are my observations which are the opinions of a retired Iraq vet with 15 years experience with military explosives. My observations are based on this video and other vids, etc. I have seen since Christmas morning.
The bomb seems to have been on the weak side (compared to IEDs in the middle east and OK City for example) . There appears to be a lot of damge to building fronts/facades, as well as vehicles. But not total destruction of any building at detonation site. There also seems to have been an incendiary component.
Much of the damage I've seen in pictures seems that debris coming outward from buildings due to damage possibly from structural compromise relates to the blast which was exacerbated by fire leading to partial collapse.
Numerous reports of officers responding due to "shots fired" calls, but they don't put on their armor until after the blast.
Watch any number of videos online from Afghanistan/Iraq, officer involved shootings. You will find that you can hear officers breathing heavily. Both from adrenaline and moving with, shall we say, a distinct sense of urgency. These officers seem markedly calm.
Before and after the blast, there is a notable calm that seems out of place. Almost a laissez-faire mentality. I didn't see or hear anything about building clearing or evacuation prior to detonation. I understand officers wanting to clear the area, but casually dismissing witnesses rather than taking a statement or at least getting contact info from eyewitnesses is VERY odd.
There is a link floating around from Nashville Fire Dept radio traffic initial response, as well as written documentation of ammunition cooking off. How in the hell does a bomb in an RV cause damage to an entire city block, but somehow leaves enoigh ammunition at the point of detonation to cook off in the subsequent fire. All early reports said the RV was eviscerated, but in the NFD audio you can hear discussion about putting out the RV fire. I'm no expert on RVs, but I do know that despite the robust frame, axle and engine blocks, the structure of the RV behind the cab (the cab being like any other vehicle) is very lightweight.
Half melted cars, but an RV survives blast to burn and have small arms ammo cook off.
For a significant event, to be "solved" in less than 24 hours, there is a distinct lack of detail being released. Sort of like TPTB have figured out that we easily take their "details" and turn them against them.
The mayor laughs about it on live TV.
Overall, to me, this is one of the strangest events I've seen. Almost makes 9/11 and Las Vegas seem believable.
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