Combat - grenades

[phavoc]

I have a question I could ask here, rather than open one up in another thread.

Do MREs really go up like little bombs if you mess with them?

I dunno about the newer ones that have those self-heating packets. The old ones (late 80s) you could do whatever you wanted with them. If you ever got the chicken loaf or ham and chicken loaf best thing was to hurl them at your enemy and hope he dies a painless death by eating that shit.

I used to drive HEMTT's and haul rockets around, and those big 500hp engines were the perfect place to cook the little to-go size cans of things. Drop one in the exhaust and let it idle (i.e. cook) for a few minutes, then you romp on the accelerator and the little can comes shooting out. All nice and hot and ready to eat! Ah, the things we used to do to avoid field chow sometimes.

 

[rust]

Do MREs really go up like little bombs if you mess with them?

I just looked it up. The problem is not the MRE, it is the heater package
used to heat it. The chemicals of the heater produce a small amount of
hydrogen gas while heating the MRE, and in a small closed room this is
sufficient to cause a minor explosion if ignited by something. Therefore
the heaters may not be used in tanks and similar vehicles, tank crews
get an electrical heater for their MREs.

 

[DeadMike]

Did you know that the plastic explose inside of the mine is flammable and you can safely burn it? Yep... Just don't like stomp on it to put it out because compression like that can set it off. Oops...

I was a tracked vehicle combat engineer, so yup. Spent a lot of time in tanks and playing with explosives.

 

[Sevya]

My instructors would tell all kinds of stories about stupid people doing stupid things with mines (and artillery shells and just about anything you can think of.

We had some of those people as patients when I served as a medic with
our forces.

I'm sure you medics saw a lot of those people. Kinda like emergency room employees and ambulance workers.

Sevya

 

[rust]

I'm sure you medics saw a lot of those people. Kinda like emergency room employees and ambulance workers.

At least it was a fascinating way to learn that the universe is bizarre and
absolutely unpredictable, and that it even uses pork chop bones as wea-
pons to undermine man's sanity ... :shock:

[One of our most promising fighter pilots had to be grounded after he had
"crashed" on the mess hall's parking lot while walking to his car. He step-
ped on a pork chop bone, slipped, and fell backwards, breaking his skull
and badly damaging his neck - and gone was his flight permit.]

 

[justacaveman]

The "The Front Toward Enemy" was added to Claymore mines because the Viet Cong were sneaking up to them at night and turning them around to face the American positions. After the warning was added you could just glance at the mine and see that is was pointed in the wrong direction.

One way to prevent anyone from messing with the mine was to place a Hand Grenade under the mine so that the mine pressed down on the spoon of the grenade, and removing the pin (Surprise!!).

 

[phavoc]

I always could look at a claymore and realize that if it looks convex, it's pointed at me. And if it looked concave, it was pointed away from me.

You shouldn't ever be able to read the writing on the outside because, in theory at least, its supposed to be hidden...

But nobody ever said stupid people don't try to outstupid other stupid people. :shock: