Gif of the week

Throwing a grenade like a girl.

A short-distance record for a mortor shell.

In basic training, I didn't throw the grenade that short ... but it was close enough to merit the drill sergeant to drag both of us to the ground to avoid being shrapnelled. #fraggedlife

The only chance I got to throw a live grenade in basic I failed to demonstrate the correct stance beforehand, so I wasn't allowed to throw it. That was too bad, because I was really good at throwing dummy grenades.

They let me throw one, but they seemed kind of shaky. They kept reminding me that if I dropped it to be sure and get it inside the pipe behind the berm.

I was very surprised at the shock wave produced by something containing 4oz of C4.

I think the woman soldier in the video shouldn't have been allowed to throw a live grenade. Who would let her do that? I don't think it was a full charge grenade or that exposed soldier would have been injured.

In the Air Force back in the late 1950's, we just to learn how to shoot the carbine. Since I worked with conventional and nuclear weapons, and it was not practical to be carrying around a carbine, so we were issued 38's. We also had target practice with 45's. They sure bucked alot! Gee, that was over 60 years ago.

Now that's turning on a dime!

In basic training we used the M-1 garand, the Old World War II rifle, and it was heavy, almost 10 lb, but it had very little kick. Pretty good rifle with an 8 round clip.

This was in 1961, and basic training was pretty laid-back, because war was the furthest thing from anybody's mind. Our platoon sergeant was retiring after we graduated basic training, so he was pretty cool.

Marching, marching, marching everywhere we went and drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Basic training is where I learned to love coffee, hot, black coffee in the middle of the summer in South Carolina, imagine. That's mostly what I remember. They say the Army marches on its stomach, but I think it marches on coffee and cigarettes.