Things that go BOOM

We watched the "Hurt Locker" again tonight. The story is of particular interest to me because in the National Guard, I taught Battalion Level Demolitions. We taught the soldiers how to blow stuff up! We used C4, Det. Cord, shape charges, etc.

One week we were giving classes at Camp Chafee, Arkansas. We had checked out a truck load of explosives. At the end of each day we had to reload the truck take it to the ammo dump and check it in only to have to get there at 6:00 am the next morning to start again. On afternoon before last day of classes, we got the bright idea to just stay at the class site for the night and "sleep in". We just did not tell anyone that we were out there. Here were 5 soldiers with a truck load of explosives out in the wilderness and no one knew we were there. Not our Company Commanders, not the Chafee Range Officers, not anyone!

We parked the truck in the trees and set the box of electric blasting caps across the field under a lone tree. We separated the caps because they were lethal all by themselves. That box of caps could kill anyone within 200 feet.

We were having a good time eating the food we brought for the occasion, until we heard the vehicle approaching about dark. Seems we forgot that other people used the base as well. The U.S. Army 101st Airborne were playing war games with the Texas National Guard the same week. We hid and watched as a squad of Texas Guard came through the edge of our site. To our shock their commander pulled up in a Jeep about 50 feet from the caps and set their talking on his radio. One change in frequency and they get blown up!

We were sweating bullets.

After a while the group leaves and we realized the mess we are in. But no one else comes.

However, at 2:00am a thunder storm pops up and lightning is everywhere! Now we are afraid the truck will be hit. Lighting hit a tree about 300 feet from us, but we were dry and safe in a small bunker but scared to death.

Sunrise and we thank God. As the troops start arriving for class, a Range officer arrives for inspection and sees the fallen tree and half blamed us for blowing it up! Later that day we did.

When the class ended, we still had most of the demolitions left and the Ammo dump sent word that they did not want it back. We took it down range and piled it up and moved back to the hill top and detonated it. It shook the range and the radius of the explosion and shrapnel mowed the weeds for about 400 feet in every direction and sent up a nice mushroom cloud.

Our motto back then was: "The only difference between the Boy Scouts and the National Guard was that the Boy Scouts had adult leadership!"

By the way everything we did that night was a Court Marshall offense. When our commander heard the story, on our last drill before getting out, he almost fainted.

Yes, the "Hurt Locker" is meaningful to me.