I was scared to death of those big flares,really careful
when I fired one off.
Remember seeing those big shells along the side of the road
where they had fallen off the 2 1/2 tns.Even the g**ks left
them alone.
The flares I thought about stealing were an aluminum tube about 1.5 inches wide and 16 inches long. We had a case of them on the bridge of our ship when on station off the river mouth. To light it off you took off the cap, placed it on the other end, and then hit that end with your palm. When I and other officers had OOD bridge watches on boring nights, we often set one off on the port side, which was away from the Captain’s stateroom. We never got any questions from other ships in the area about what the he?? we thought we were doing. The Captain had to notice there were fewer flares in the wooden case each day, but never made a comment. He was a great leader and always picked the right issues. We operated with running lights at night and were well out of range of any ordinance the VC could send our way.