Re: [MV] "Thermite" grenades and holders???

From: Cav43rdBn@aol.com
Date: Sat Aug 19 2000 - 09:47:32 PDT


In a message dated 7/26/00 11:11:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
fackovec@radiotech.com writes:

> Has anyone seen a pix of these, have model numbers or know
> anything about them,

    I worked in the comm vault while in the 3rd AD, and I can tell you what I
know about the thermite usage.

    In the vault, we had a few Mosler-brand safes, that had been evidently
modified (not sure by whom) for our usage. On the top of the safe, which is
fairly thick to begin with, there was a removable plate. You pulled the plate
off, and there were two recesses (like shallow cupholders), one about 8" from
the front, one about 8" from the back. (We kept crypto codes, the crypto
units for the RT-524s (KY-57 units), and the KYK units in the safes.) If we
were going to be overrun (and we did have a similar setup in our M577),
we took the thermite grenades out of the bottom drawer (they were kept in
an ammo can sealed with tamper-evident seals, and were part of the daily
checklist), took off the top lid, and each man (two man team) took a grenade.
At the same time, we pull the pins, set them in the recesses, and unassed
the AO ASAP! :-)
    The thermite would melt down through the top, igniting the CEOIs (paper),
and slag the equipment.

    Not sure what everybody else's procedures were like, but that was
ours.

Jerry



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