“Does anyone remember the ARVN soldier with the mortar round stuck in him that was removed by American doctors in a field hospital?”
In fact, I remembered that and was going to post something about it myself. One minor correction. It was a 40mm grenade fired from a grenade launcher and not a mortor round.
Most exploding ammunition have fuzes that require certain things to happen before they arm. The 40mm grenade had to rotate a number of times prior to arming. The soldier was struck at close range and it was highly likely that the grenade had not armed and would not explode. Still, anything is possible when it comes to fired ordnance and it was possible that the grenade could have exploded. Most likely the RPG has a similar safety device which is why it did not detonate.
These safety devices are there to make sure that the ordnance travels far enough from the firing position that when it does detonate, it will not harm those firing the weapon.
Thanks for the correction. I remember the kick the Marines got out of firing an M-79 round into the ground beside my foot.
Damn funny. I can still hear myself laughing, maybe not. I didn’t care what the Marines told us at Camp Pendleton about the round rotating to arm itself. I got on my gunboat and left, knowing that if I got killed it would be by a Vietnamese, of course the boat crew was Vietnamese so it was a sure thing. I could get it coming or going.
The surgeon in the Vietnam incident was Air Force Brig. Gen. James Humphreys. He had previously commanded Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio. My dad was his deputy commander there. General Humphreys was a great man and a great horseman. He used to ride with us kids at the base stables. We were not surprised at all when he volunteered for the surgery. He was that kind of man.