View Full Version : When I was younger, my dad got me a Chemistry Set...
.....That got bigger than the both of us."
So now you've answered the question of why you all went SF....
Why'd you pick your specialty, Primary and Secondary?
Or was it assigned to you to fill a "slot"?
NousDefionsDoc
11-19-2004, 17:26
Next class starting was medics. When I make up my mind to do something, I don't like to BS around. Best choice I ever made.
Ambush Master
11-19-2004, 17:36
I started off headed for Engineer. Combat Engineer AIT, but I changed to Weapons once I got to Bragg. Back then it was both "Light" and "Heavy" giving you a dual MOS 11B/C. Having the CE MOS earlier helped or assisted some of the things that I got myself into !! :D Like, Hey you're both weapons and demo, go de-dud the range !! :eek:
I started off headed for Engineer. Combat Engineer AIT, but I changed to Weapons once I got to Bragg. Back then it was both "Light" and "Heavy" giving you a dual MOS 11B/C. Having the CE MOS earlier helped or assisted some of the things that I got myself into !! :D Like, Hey you're both weapons and demo, go de-dud the range !! :eek:
Thank God he didn't have a Chemistry Set, right TR? :D
NousDefionsDoc
11-19-2004, 17:44
"Numbah f******1, do it again!"
Ambush Master
11-19-2004, 17:55
Thank God he didn't have a Chemistry Set, right TR? :D
OH, BUT I DID !!! And in Chem II, in High School, I melted the blades off of the vent hood fan with one of my concoctions !!! I know some REALLY GOOD tricks !!! :D
Smokin Joe
11-19-2004, 18:37
OH, BUT I DID !!! And in Chem II, in High School, I melted the blades off of the vent hood fan with one of my concoctions !!! I know some REALLY GOOD tricks !!! :D
I would shuggest publishing your vast knowledge of nastinest but the wrong people would probably get there hands on it. :(
I need to get my Father on here, you and he could share some great concoctions. Only difference is he made his for A1E's and Jolly Greens.
brownapple
11-19-2004, 19:20
18A, didn't have a choice.
Bill Harsey
11-19-2004, 20:58
Speaking of chemistry sets...Sir Reaper?
The Reaper
11-19-2004, 22:51
Speaking of chemistry sets...Sir Reaper?
Blasted a good bit of my parents house working on nitrocellulose at age 14, almost burned it down making Thermite a year later.
Yep, MSG Muldoon and I have a lot in common. :D
TR
brownapple
11-20-2004, 00:04
Blasted a good bit of my parents house working on nitrocellulose at age 14, almost burned it down making Thermite a year later.
Yep, MSG Muldoon and I have a lot in common. :D
TR
Cold is the key... :cool:
Jack Moroney (RIP)
11-23-2004, 06:51
When I was young my father got himself a .22 caliber rifle which he used to shoot at me when he got drunk. Never hit me, but taught me a lot about three second rushes, cover and concealment, and terrain appreciation. Figured I might as well put it to good use.
Jack Moroney
Shark Bait
11-23-2004, 13:56
I always had an interest in explosives and wanted to learn more about improvised munitions, so I went for engineer. I certainly learned how to blow up a trash can in a city park.
Dave - don't forget the mysterious flaming mushroom clouds in the desert from the experimental POL charges. Scared the shit out of some rancher's cattle with those.
Shark Bait
11-23-2004, 14:39
Dave - don't forget the mysterious flaming mushroom clouds in the desert from the experimental POL charges. Scared the shit out of some rancher's cattle with those.
Yup, people are still talking about the second nuclear weapons test north of Socorro.
The Reaper
11-23-2004, 14:58
Dave - don't forget the mysterious flaming mushroom clouds in the desert from the experimental POL charges. Scared the shit out of some rancher's cattle with those.
Nothing like an inverted 40 lb. shaped charge under a 55 gallon drum of jellied gasoline, or a nuclear weapons simulator in the wrong place to get public attention. :D
TR
Bill Harsey
11-23-2004, 19:38
When I was young my father got himself a .22 caliber rifle which he used to shoot at me when he got drunk. Never hit me, but taught me a lot about three second rushes, cover and concealment, and terrain appreciation. Figured I might as well put it to good use.
Jack Moroney
Holy SH*T Sir.
Ambush Master
11-23-2004, 21:46
Early to mid 1960's South of Houston. Put one large roll of Dry Cleaner's plastic bag material, a continuous "tube" of the plastic material that dry cleaners use to cover clothes, with 2 LARGE rolls of commercial grade aluminum foil and several kids that have way too much time on their hands. We added several 5 gallon glass water bottles, a fair quantity of lye and some H2O.
We were attempting, with the "Prototype", to fill a small sized envelope with the Hydrogen, that was generated in a Bottle from strips of the foil, lye and H2O when the WHOLE GARAGE WENT BANG !!!! Luckily, it didn't set fire to the house, but it blew all of the windows in the garage out. After we replaced all of the glass, we held some very long "Think Sessions" to prevent this from happening again.
(You must keep in mind that this took place in the immediate vicinity of the Houston NASA facility and several of the participant's parents worked there .)
Once we got the Hydrogen generation system worked out, we assembled a VERY long/tall balloon from the "Laundry Bag" material. Inside of the envelope were the 2 rolls of Aluminum Foil (Radar Reflectors), attached to the top and unrolled inside the tube. We filled the tube with enough Hydrogen to lift it, attached ballast weights to keep it vertical and then attached a chemical delay ignition system, of my design, to it and let her fly !!!
It was at about 2200 when we released it and it went way the hell up, and then it ignited!! Huge fireball and then LOTS of Jets flying all over the place.
There were rumors of UFOs etc, but it has been a mystery..... until now.
The Reaper
11-23-2004, 22:05
I think Mr. Harsey has some experience with hydrogen. :D
TR
magician
11-23-2004, 23:13
ok, since this thread has deviated somewhat, and since, yes, it can be said that I am a deviant, I will jump in.
when I was young, I used to hide out in Seattle around 1st Avenue. One of the clubs I used to patronize was called Club Vogue. It was pretty snooty, in a way, but I liked the music, and I liked the snotty girls that went there. Anyway, one night, I closed the place down, then went down the street and across to a grimy little diner and had a burger. When I came out, I saw that Seattle's finest had attached a parking barrel to the right rear tire of my Toyota Landcruiser. Wrong answer.
I was tired, drunk, it was fucking raining (it was Seattle, remember), I already had a million parking tickets, (which is why they affixed the barrel), I was broke, and I just wanted to go home.
I rooted around inside my truck (anyone who owned one of those old-style Landcruisers knows why I call it a truck) and found a bit of det cord, some time fuse, a non-electrical M6 special and one of those old spring-powered initiators. Cannot remember the nomenclature. I just happened to have everything that I needed in a claymore bag, along with some black electrical tape. So I sat down on the curb with my demo knife and made up my train, and wrapped the det cord, three wraps, around the cable running from the barrel. I figured that would be enough. I was guesstimating.
I pulled the ring, walked back into the shadows, and jumped out of my ass when it went off. That shit was LOUD. It echoed all over downtown. The barrel went rolling off down the street, smoking. I looked left, then right, it was drizzling, and deserted, so I checked out the truck, (I was afraid that I blew the axel off it, or damaged the tire, I probably used too many wraps), got in, fired her up, and drove home, stereo cranked the whole way to keep me awake.
It was another time, another era.
I thank the Big Ranger in the Sky that I survived it, and did not end up in jail. I figure that I committed at least three or four major felonies with that little escapade. In my mind, I was just going home.
Phew.
alphamale
11-23-2004, 23:30
!!!
Holy smokes Sir Jack & Magician !!! :eek:
Bravo1-3
11-24-2004, 00:14
And I thought I was a maladjusted delinquent.
We did an experiment in basic chemistry involving flamable gasses mixed with O2 or burned alone. I took that lesson home with me :)
We had a hang out place that we called "The Bomb Shelter" because it as basically a concrete blockhouse buried into a hill with a skylight and the front door exposed. I bought a dozen butane cylinders for refilling lighters, I grabbed some oven cleaner, tin foil, some newspaper, and a couple of packs of matches.
I used the ket ingredients to construct a nice chemical fuze, then started pulling the valves out of the butane cylinders and pitching them into the bomb shelter.
Just add some water to the fuze, pitch it into the room, run like hell to the next hill over and watch the show.
It knocked the whole front wall out, and dropped half of the roof. Of course we didn't SEE it all happen, because those pussies I was with took off like a shot as soon as fire started shooting out of the roof. :D
The Reaper
11-24-2004, 08:39
I rooted around inside my truck (anyone who owned one of those old-style Landcruisers knows why I call it a truck) and found a bit of det cord, some time fuse, a non-electrical M6 special and one of those old spring-powered initiators. Cannot remember the nomenclature.
That would be the standard M-60 Fuze Igniter, unless I misunderstand.
P for Plenty! Well done, Sir.
TR
Shark Bait
11-24-2004, 14:35
Now this is why so many people want to be SF engineers.
So the M-60 fuse igniter is the old stuff now?? What is being used these days?
Shark Bait
11-24-2004, 14:41
When I came out, I saw that Seattle's finest had attached a parking barrel to the right rear tire of my Toyota Landcruiser. Wrong answer.
I just happened to have everything that I needed in a claymore bag, along with some black electrical tape. So I sat down on the curb with my demo knife and made up my train, and wrapped the det cord, three wraps, around the cable running from the barrel. I figured that would be enough. I was guesstimating.
I pulled the ring, walked back into the shadows, and jumped out of my ass when it went off.
LOL-That's a typical SF engineer solution for you!! :D
magician
11-24-2004, 22:00
M60 fuse igniter. That was it.
Do not know what has been wrong with me lately...memory has been funny...cannot remember shit. Some things...are clear as a bell. Like the number of wraps that I used. On the other hand, I could not remember the word arthritis on Monday. Can you BELIEVE that shit?
I think that a more proportional solution would have been to tape a two-inch length of det cord to the steel cable. Three wraps was, in retrospect, way too much. Yes, I was drunk on my ass. Yes, it was o' dark thirty on a rainy night in the middle of downtown Seattle. But it was too much. That shit was really, really loud. It echoed all over the city.
I hauled ass out of there.
It is a miracle that I survived my youth.
If nothing else makes you believe in a higher power, or in the concept of faith, or in the idea of karma, just this one anecdote should. I should, by rights, be in jail.
The fact that I am not, convinces me that I am being saved for something. Maybe that "something" is nothing more than inadvertently stepping on an ant on some inscrutable day in the unknowable future.
Who the fuck knows.
But I know that I heard my heart beating in my ears that night, as I looked up and down the streets, and that barrel rolled down the street, clanging and smoking.