grenade blows up back yard

[rocky branch]

Fuze cannot be activated without the spoon flying off-propelled by the striker which ignites the fuse with a firing pin-to primer like action.

I doubt it was a Willey-Pete grenade unless it was a big area.

You can throw them beyond their burst radius, but they are heavy.

Sounds like some old trip flare or similar.

The real stuff is out there-waiting-

Be careful of any unknown ordnance you encounter.

I trained people in genade use sometimes.

You got to be alert-panic and mishandling can set in at the most inopportune ties.

I used to disarm grenades and the occaisional booby trap in my misspent youth on the Cambodian Border. Had quite a collection at one time.

I don't mess with that stuff now.

 

[gofastman]

"We're fortunate it was a phosphorous grenade" I will bet thats the only time that statement has been uttered.

 

[zoom6zoom]

 

[APIT50]

+1 ... the fuse cannot be activated unless the spoon is released. this is a very important safety feature on grenades as we are taught how to cook them whereby you release the spoon and then begin counting. Kinda think of it though...an M67 fragmentation grenade has a 3-5 second fuse and I was taught by my DI to cook it for 3 seconds. HMMMMM

 

[One-Time]

Ive never seen a pin 'fall out' of a grenade

 

[rocky branch]

Spend enough time around GIs in a combat zone who are loaded with related gear and you will have enough stories for a lifetime.

Not all of us were geniuses.
Being a leader is observing your people, but sometimes you can miss things.

I saw the aftermath of a grenade that detonated in a crowded cattle truck at Bien Hoa.
Who know why?

I spent a week in ICU at 3rd field hospital, Saigon.
There were 4 or 5 guys around me wrapped from head to toe.
It was a grenade incident of somekind-one died, the rest were blinded and had multiple injuries and screamed a lot.
They were still trying to stabilise them when I left.

 

[wideym]

You would be amazed at what can happen when you mix grenades and idiots. One of the companies in my battalion was going through a livefire excersie at the MPRC at Ft.Campbell during the late 90's.

They wanted to make sure they accounted for all thier frag grenades so they 550'ed the pin rings to thier LBV (so they wouldn't lose the rings which had to be turned in).

After the excersie, they had one grenade unaccounted for even though they had the pin. Turns out the grenade fell out of the joes pouch, pulling the pin out that is still attached to the 550 cord. The frag still had the safety clip attached so it didn't go off, but while the company was on line walking through the range policing up everything and looking for the grenade, one of the 2LT PLs steps on it knocking off the safety clip. The explosion killed the LT and lightly wounded 2 other troops.