Blown up M-14 at Fort Sill, 1970

[John Sukey]

I remember they made us throw it like a shot put rather than an over arm motion. Possibly worried that someone would drop it if they tried the overarm method like throwing a baseball

[fjruple]

One of the reasons the US went to the M67 Hand Grenade was most troops thought the shot putt type throw was too cumbersome in combat. The troops would end up throwing the grenade like a baseball anyway. The M67 Hand Grenade was developed to be about the size of a baseball. At the time most US troops had participate in little league baseball when they were youngesters and could throw a baseball pretty accurately. (Who knows what they do now.) I believe the M67 is still the standard frag for the US and Canada.

Cheers

--fjruple

[Griff Murphey]

At Fort Sill it was watchee lookee for us Rotsees. The guys who threw the cast iron trainers the longest threw them like footballs rolling them off of their fingertips and directing them accurately. I was one of the worst grenade throwers in the platoon because I built model airplanes and shot guns; never did team sports. Eventually I got where I could throw them kinda sorta ok. The day on the range we each got to chunk one M-26 hand frag. I threw, it went bang, then I wanted to see where I hit and my SFC coach nearly stuffed me into that grenade sump.

[case42so]

Griff When I was at advance camp in 75 I could not do the shot put throw worth a darn. After several attempts to throw the practice grenade the DI ordered me off the range and instructed me to never try to throw a live one.

Brian

[Griff Murphey]

I think the reason they put that E-7 SFC in the pit with me was a certain lack of confidence. But it was misplaced. I was not scared of the M-26 at all. We threw lots of smokes and simulators in high school ROTC. Our sergeant brought back cases of the stuff from advanced camp at Sill (that was the high schools' cadres' summer job!) and we had plenty.

Fort Lewis, right?

Don't take this the "wrong" way but my marriage to a woman from an "athletic" family has helped my catching and throwing a lot!