Not just for kids anymore...

[Zeb_Carter]

Talk about innovation...

Serious use for Silly String...

STRATFORD, N.J. - In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq.

 

[angela146]

Later in the same story...

But Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said Army soldiers and Marines are not forbidden to come up with new ways to do their jobs, especially in Iraq's ever-evolving battlefield. And he said commanders are given money to buy nonstandard supplies as needed.

In other cases of battlefield improvisation in Iraq, U.S. soldiers have bolted scrap metal to Humvees in what has come to be known as "Hillybilly Armor." Medics use tampons to plug bullet holes in the wounded until they can be patched up.

Also, soldiers put condoms and rubber bands around their rifle muzzles to keep out sand. And troops have welded old bulletproof windshields to the tops of Humvees to give gunners extra protection. They have dubbed it "Pope's glass" — a reference to the barriers that protect the pontiff.

In an October call to his mother, Army Spc. Todd Shriver explained how his unit in the insurgent hotbed of Ramadi learned from Marines to use Silly String on patrol to detect boobytraps.

After sending some cans to her 28-year-old son, Shriver enlisted the help of two priests and posted notices in her church and its newsletter. From there, the effort took off, with money and Silly String flowing in. Parishioners have been dropping cans into donation baskets.

"There's so much that they can't do, and they're frustrated, but this is something they can do," said the Rev. Joseph Capella of St. Luke's Church in Stratford.

 

[Liar]

What I want to know is, who thought of the idea of bringing silly string to war in the first place? Deserves a cookie.

 

[oggbashan]

The WWII British equivalent was to roll a cricket ball into the suspect building.

If it was occupied by the enemy they might think the ball was a grenade. If it was booby-trapped, the cricket ball was hard and heavy enough to trip any wires.

Og

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

The WWII British equivalent was to roll a cricket ball into the suspect building.

If it was occupied by the enemy they might think the ball was a grenade. If it was booby-trapped, the cricket ball was hard and heavy enough to trip any wires.

Og

And the lads at Normandy of course had condoms covering their rifle barrels. Tampons as emergengy bandages goes back at least to Viet Nam.

This one is brilliant.

 

[angela146]

Tampons as emergengy bandages goes back at least to Viet Nam.

Which is interesting because tampons and pads were invented by WWI nurses who started using bandages (I presume as a substitute for rags and sponges).

 

[Svenskaflicka]

"No, no, honey, I'm not going to cheat on you while I'm over there! I'm bringing condoms with me into war to... prevent sand from getting into the rifle! Yeah, that's it!"

 

[Zeb_Carter]

"No, no, honey, I'm not going to cheat on you while I'm over there! I'm bringing condoms with me into war to... prevent sand from getting into the rifle! Yeah, that's it!"

They don't have to bring them, the Army and Marine Corp issue them.