Sunday, April 19, 2009

Grenades

I know, two posts in two days, how exciting! I learned a lesson about grenades today. We were leaving FOB Loyalty when I asked about how arming a grenade happens. Since I didn't come in the Army originally, I was making sure I knew what was safe. After figuring out that just pulling the pin was safe as long as you hold onto the handle, we left the gate to the FOB. We hit a big bump and one of the smoke grenades we hang on our door fell, but it was just the body, the pin assembly separated from the body and it fell. I was worried it had armed at first, but we figured that it was safe for now, it was only a 10 minute ride to our base. So for 10-15 minutes, I rode with this at my feet paranoid it was going to go off. But it didn't because the pin assembly is designed to screw in, only when the pin is pulled and the handle release does it ignite. This led to a discussion about me possibly throwing one (a smoke grenade) for practice. I'll update if that happens. Anyway, thought I would share that tidbit and actually keep this thing updated better than once a month.

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