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"Could someone here explain "hair-trigger" in the context of a grenade?"

The explanation I have seen is that for the longest while Cleland thought it was his grenade. He was the only person getting off the helicopter at the time, so that would seem to be the likely explanation.

When Cleland appeared on a History Channel program, an ex-Marine named David Lloyd of Annapolis, MD, saw him and said he knew that it was someone else's greande. Lloyd got in touch with Cleland and told him what he believed had happened.

Lloyd said that another Marine new to the front (though of course Cleland was also new to the front) had straightened out the kotter pin on his grenade so that he could pull it more readily. And that this was the grenade that had fallen and Cleland had picked up. When he picked it up the pin fell out.

This was reported in slightly different versions in two South Carolina papers.

Here are the two articles I mentioned that appeared in the SC press:

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/7218941.htm
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/113000/LOCbooksigning.shtml

grenade that had fallen and Cleland had picked up. When he picked it up the pin fell out.

This still dosen't wash

#1. As noted elsewhere in this post you have any where from 4 to 12 seconds before the thing goes off, AFTER THE PIN IS PULLED AND THE SAFETY LEVER IS RELEASED.

#2. The #1 rule in dealing with grenades is YOU DON"T PICK "EM UP.... you YELL... "GRENADE!!!!" AND HIT THE DIRT

Picking them up and tossing them away to save everyones life only happens in the movies.

That said, the ONLY time I saw a guy do that it went off just as he stooped over to pick it up... just like Max, ....."cept Max was luckier