A little background information is in order:

Every evening the perimeter guards install trip flares in the concertina wire and claymore mines just short of the wire. Every morning they have to disarm them, pack them away, and store them for the day. Guards were repeatedly instructed how and ordered to safe their flares during the day.

Trip flares look roughly like hand-grenades. They have the spoon and the pin, but when they go off they just burn very brightly for a minute. (I suspect they are burning a magnesium powder. They burn white and HOT!) Because trip flares are repeatedly deployed and recovered, their pins are not the split-ring-with-cotter-key type that fragmentation and smoke grenades have. Trip flare pins are two, attached, parts. The “armed” pin is a straight solid rod with an eye to which you can tie your trip wire. The “safed” pin is a “C” shaped spring that locks the spoon down from both sides. If you grip the spoon tight against the body of the flare, the “armed” pin falls right out. Installation technique counts for a lot; flares can be rigged sensitive enough that they will trigger on a thrown cigarette butt (and every passing helicopter) or insensitive enough that you can tangle yourself in the wire, realize what you've done, steal the flare, and take it home for a trophy.

Claymore mines are a plastic case about the size of a license plate, three-quarter inch thick, and slightly curved. The the convex side of the case is lined with quarter-inch steel balls, and the rest of the case is filled with C4 plastic explosive. There are four folding wire legs on the bottom, a couple of holes for blasting caps, and a peep-hole sight on top. (What you see is what you get, but even that was too complicated for one of our guys.)

C4 plastic explosive the military explosive of choice because it requires both heat and shock to explode. (It is why people can survive having grenades shot off there belt.) People often busted up the claymores for the C4. They used it for heating C-rations and entertainment. A small amount of burning C4, when stomped on went “pop”. Stomping on a larger amount of burning C4 was reputed to blow off your foot. (As I recall, we lost one guy that way, but after 41 years, my memory is not to be trusted.)

One morning, as I watched one of the temporary guards heading “home” from a night's duty, I noticed that the .30 caliber ammo box he carried was glowing red hot. When I pointed this out to him he acted surprised, set the red-hot box on the ground, opened it, and dumped the contents on the ground.

Out of the box came two each grenades, mines, and trip flares. The grenades were merely smoking. Everything else was burning.

The guard had not “safed” his flares. He had left in the “armed” pins and the weight of the other equipment and the bounce of his walk had set them off.

We all ran away.

Five minutes later all that was left was the charred can, a pile of ash, a tangle of trip wire, and two grenades.

Thereupon, a sergeant picked up a shovel and the private and went to rectify the problem.

The both men were bent close over the smoldering fire as the sergeant lifted one of the grenades out of the ash pile, when it went “pop”.

The C4 in the grenade apparently had enough heat, and it had some pressure built-up inside the body, but it didn't have the shock required to achieve a high-order explosion. It just went “pop” and broke open like an egg.

The notched steal coil, that normally turns into shrapnel, had broken in two. All of the C4 was gone. The sheetmetal cover had peeled back like a banana skin. The still silvery, shining blasting cap was sticking up inside of that grenade like a wee proud flagpole.

I think all of us fouled ourselves, but the only damage done was to the sergeant and the private. They suffered identical wounds. Each had a small cut under one eye and and at the base of the throat. No damage done, really. Just enough to make a good story.

I don't remember any repercussions of any kind... which is astonishing, if you think about it. No jury would have convicted the sergeant if he had murdered the kid on the spot.

I still have the notched wire.

Submitted on 12/11/2007

Submitted by: Art Clack
Reference: none, Spring of '67

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Art, it is really unfortunate that you don't have any supporting documentation as this would definitely be one fine Honorable Mention. As it is, you have given us an absolutely top-rank Personal Account. Thank you!

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
This certainly is a great PA. I can only imagine what was going through the mind of that guard when he realized he had a red hot box full of explosives in his hands. Thanks, Art!

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