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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.
Marines are affectionately know as crayon eaters. If you were unaware...
"rock or something"
There are plenty of (likely apocryphal) stories of new Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) recruits being fed C4 and chased around with a stun gun. The old timers tell the new recruit that electricity will cause C4 to detonate. In reality, it’s a potent laxative and will give them the shits in a matter of minutes. So the recruit is stuck running away from a taser that they think will make them explode, while desperately trying not to shit themselves.
War. War never changes.
Sounds like harmless fun for all the family
So...
Explosive diarrhea?
“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.
We were told in basic that while flammable it did not go boom when lit in fire, but not to cook steak over it..
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.
Literally btw
American troops would eat small amounts of C4 in the Vietnam war to get high. Apparently had some pretty severe side effects though.
Like, yeah, you're high, but you also have the worst headache of your life and can't stop vomiting and shitting.
Fun times?
Now I wonder what it tastes like... I bet it's like a flavor explosion.
not good. somebody actually tried and lived to tell the tale:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Russian_apartment_bombings#Ryazan_incident
Pinyaev guarded a storehouse with weapons and ammunition near the city of Ryazan. Together with a friend, he entered the storehouse to see the weapons. The friends were surprised to see that the storehouse contained sacks with the word "sugar" on them. Pinyaev and his friend were discouraged, but didn't want to leave the storehouse empty-handed. The two paratroopers cut a hole in one of the bags and put some sugar in a plastic bag. They made tea with the sugar, but the taste of the tea was terrible. They became frightened because the substance might turn out to be saltpeter, and brought the plastic bag to a platoon commander. He consulted a sapper, who identified the substance as hexogen
that's a mean looking molecule 
a lot like TNT but with more nitrogen
no, it's sugar, can't you see, it's clearly labeled on the bag
Looks very very unhappy.
Dad?
I've heard that dudes in 'Nam would eat bits of it to upset their stomach and get medical treatment.
Can't be worse than an MRE.
Constipation gets replaced by explosive diarrhea
It's got electrolytes!
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.
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.
Makes life in the ammo depot much less stressful.
for all that things are terrible nowadays it's pretty fucking nice to know that ships loaded with explosives aren't going to level cities again.
now if only the same could be said for fertilizer storage
this is much better than some other older explosives that are toxic on skin contact
I've heard it causes explosive diarrhea
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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