Posted on 02/20/2019 9:29:17 AM PST by Chainmail
When I was a Marine 1st Lieutenant in 1975, I was gifted 125 hand grenades by a departing army unit for our battalion's training. Pleased with myself (since everything was hard to get for my Marines those days), I told our battalion commander of our acquisition.
He was horrified, since he detested grenades and harbored a fear that the troops would "frag" him with them (!) (he had many issues..) so he commanded me to destroy all 125 grenades myself at the grenade range and to have another lieutenant count the blasts to make sure that they were all destroyed.
Sheesh.
I threw every one of them myself - right-handed, left-handed, both hands at once and even considered throwing one with my feet but decided against it. At the end of the waste of these grenades, both of my flak jacket pockets were filled with grenade pins.
The next day, we deployed aboard the USS Frederick (LST-1184) and as I boarded, I noticed that I still had all those grenade pins, so in a spirit of naval camaraderie, I handed one of those pins to the first sailor I met and said "here you go, sailor, a genuine grenade pin: they make great key rings". Despite dealing with a Marine officer, the sailor seemed surprised and reasonably grateful, so I kept at it until pretty well every sailor on the Frederick (including the Captain) had his own grenade pin.
As an officer embarked aboard, one of my duties was to visit the mess decks during chow to ensure that my Marines were being fed and no interservice shenanigans were breaking out.
As I stood here, I heard one sailor say to another sailor "look! I got this grenade pin from a Marine who killed a VC with it!"
Semper Fi,
Ouch!
Since they were all strikes, there was no reason to send in a reliever.....
Hah! It’s amazing how fast the story changes.
When I was in Basic the grenade range officer told us stories of recruits dropping grenades and other things. When it was my turn to throw, I will swear that thing was still in the air when it exploded. I have never thrown anything as hard in my life.
Once you pull the pin Mr. Handgrenade is not your friend.
Your commander may have been a little uptight about grenades, certainly fragging was a serious issue in Vietnam, particularly among leaders who were not viewed by the troops as competent.
But, I think that something else may have been going on. Ammunition, especially explosives has always been carefully accounted for and certainly so in the training environment. A gift of 125 hand grenades from a friendly Army unit smells. Transferring that ammo would involve some serious paperwork, especially if it was between services. If that paperwork wasn’t done, then it was likely stolen. Since every grenade is marked with a lot number, everyone of these could have been traced. If your commander chosen not to notify the CID or NCIS, then he would have probably been motivated to get rid of the evidence.
Another point. Packing materials, brass, grenade pins, etc together is call residue. Depending on what it is, residue can also be accountable. Hand grenades pins fit into that category, at least in the Army. If you draw 125 grenades, then a unit would have to turn in unexpended grenades and the grenade pins from all expended grenade and those two would have to add up to 125. These grenades were hotter than a pancake griddle.
I was blessed with a load of good Marine Officers with one exception, during my enlistment.
The one exception was an overweight asshole...................
They make great rifle sling attachments in a pinch...
Would that have been true in Viet Nam, during the war? It would seem a bit difficult to enforce ...
WAIT a minute...
One is NEVER supposed to ‘interfere’ with a good Sea Story by interjecting COLD HARD FACTS!!!!
Rereading the OP, the incident didn’t occur in VN during the war, so my question is somewhat moot.
Or maybe it did.
I’m confused.
My dad was awarded a Bronze Star in WW2. I asked what he did to get it and he said “I was the clerk that filled out the award paperwork for all the medals”.
On the way out of port headed to Operation Torch, someone spotted what they thought was a periscope. They were going to ignore it but my dad told the gunners and several soldiers to fire where they thought it was. Every man on the ship got an American Theater Campaign Ribbon
Whenever he crossed the big quadrangle, which was surrounded by barracks, you could hear people calling out to him, "Quack, quack, quack, quack..."
He'd spin around looking for them, but could never identify them.
He was finally mustered out, refused reenlistment (sorry, I don't remember what it was called for officers, probably not "reenlistment"). Didn't help that his .45 once "went off" in the colonel's office, putting a hole in colonel's ceiling, with the colonel himself sitting there not ten feet away.
Kind of feel sorry for him now. He had no business getting a commission. But in those days, if you walked in with a BS in chemistry, you were GONNA get a commission. And if you turned out to be a total doof, it was going to be embarrassing.
He will be your friend as long as you keep hugging his spoon.
My grandfather had one as well. When I asked about it, he said dismissively, "Meh, they gave one to everybody.". We didn't find out the story behind it until after he died.
In the same vein, a good family friend - English - saw heavy action in Korea and the Suez, among other garden spots. Had a raft of great stories, but they were always: "My mates did this" or "My friends did that...". When I asked him what he was doing while all this was happening, he'd say that he was "Hiding. Up a tree/Under a desk/In a closet" and so on.
Trust that your dad earned his Bronze Star. :-)
Another fun thing to do is plant one on the floor, then later dramatically get it, hold it up and yell: “Hey, has anyone seen the grenade that goes with this pin?”
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