Trip flares

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by Andy
During the dry season anyone else pop trip flares to start a fire and clear out tall grass and whatever from an open area? With there never being any wind, damn fires came back on us more than once.

Stay healthy,
Andy

Yeah, thats the trouble with starting forest fires WHILE YOURE IN THE FOREST
This happened to me more than once (forest fires) not that I started em. My momma taught me not to play with fire. I 'member one time me and the lads were out on radio relay patrol way out in tall grass Indian country south of the Ia Drang
Radio relay was easy duty for lrrps--they'd drop a team out in th field who would relay messages from teams too far out out of radio contact. You'd just find a good hideyhole and sit there for days, none of that bothersome strolling around the countryside engaiging with the unwashed-- really bad lrrps would bring along a case or 2 of beer or so Ive heard.
Onceupon a time one of the team members (NOT the humble undersigned) decided he would blow off a parchute flare for some fugazi reason, one of those little hand held jobbies.
That started the biggest grass fire you ever saw, it must have burned out at least 20 square miles, everything we saw was black. After 3 days everything around us was black except right at th top of our hill where we'd managed to keep the fire away from us, a little island of green in an ocean of black--might as well have had a big arow pointing right at us.
They pulled us and all the other teams out too. Somehow I think the higherups got the idea that it was a parachute flare dropped from an airplane

James

[39mto39g]

The last time I used one of these I had a base camp LT get in my face about letting it off. He said I told everyone not to use them. I told him I seen movment , He said he didn't care what I seen, He said not to use them, As he was walking away I kinda let a F-word slipp. My Lt and him almost went to blows.
This was at Dak To.

Ron

[Andy]

James, James, James starting fires would have been dangerous for YOU. However strolling around and riding around are two different animals. When we started fires we always made sure there was a brook near by. If the fire started going in the wrong direction we'd just saddle up and drive off into the sunset. Even combat loaded an APC could do 30MPH. Matter of fact I never saw one that caught fire unless it hit a land mine or got hit with an RPG, even then only sometimes did it burn.

Ron, I know it sounds like one of them stories but a friend of mine who was with the 2/22 (triple duce) tells the story of running out of ammo during Tet. He claims that at close quarters he banged a hand flare, using it as a direct fire weapon and fried a bad guy. He claims that's how he got his ARCOM (w/V). It's a story but it could have happened.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[39mto39g]

I have found that in the listening of stories that sometimes a strange story is more likely to have happened than one that makes sence. Sometimes the truth is stanger than fiction.
A handheld flair will go about 300 feet up and then there is a POP and the flair lights as the small shoot opens, Its possible that you could shoot it horazontal, I can't see how it would be accuret.

I never liked shooting those things, They left a smoke trail from where they were shot from.

Ron