Considering that it’s given the marines to plant, I believe this
Even softer than crayons, how could they resist??
Please do not engage in intercorse with the plastic explosive.
“rock or something”
“See… Because of me, now they have a warning”
Michael Herr in Dispatches, his book about the Vietnam War, relates that a soldier would occasionally ingest C4 from a Claymore mine in order to cause temporary illness so that he would be sent on sick leave.
Also heard that since it burns, troops in Vietnam would break off small pieces as firestarter or cooking rations, hence the warning about how it burns and makes toxic gases.
Why did I read the title as ‘explosive if eaten raw’?
So I’ve figured if I just cook the dynamite, then it’s safe to eat.
Apparently C4 burns quite well and is still pretty stable while aflame. There are anekdotes of soldiers using it as emergency fuel to cook water for their rations
That’s for the marines.
I’ve heard that dudes in 'Nam would eat bits of it to upset their stomach and get medical treatment.
It’s got electrolytes!
this is much better than some other older explosives that are toxic on skin contact
It’s really not that volatile a substance. You can burn it, even.
You need a special device to actually get it to explode.
Which is precisely why it’s such an amazing explosive, imagine how happy people must have been to go from explosives that might detonate if you cough near them, to something you can set aflame without worry.
I’m almost certain I’ve heard stories about soldiers eating or even burning c4^1 for shits and giggles. Not surprised they have to put a warning label on it, though I doubt it does any good.
^1 : iirc c4 by itself is very safe because it has to be exposed to a sudden increase in pressure and heat to detonate (e.g. a shock wave, or supposedly, stomping on it while it’s on fire). Just burning it or throwing it at a wall won’t make it explode.
Yes you can burn it. C4 needs a fairly deliberate effort to explode. There have been issues where improperly set large shots of C4 end up on fire all over the area rather than exploding. Which is a suboptimal situation.
For eating, the way I heard is that people would stick a piece inside their lip ala a tobacco dip. Supposedly the contact with the inner lip causes some kind of heightened feeling. I can’t prove that one though.
I mean, many many organic compounds, like solvents or plasticizers, get you high. Similar to ethanol.
It’s all poisoning you, we just have a good way to metabolize ethanol.
I have heard that, if just lit on fire with a match or whatever, C4 simply burns rather than exploding, and I have heard this has been used to heat at least one meal.
I’ve heard it causes explosive diarrhea
