I have been fortunate enough to meet the EOD man who was assigned to the CIA for 5 years during the Vietnam war, MSG Jim Willis. His main purpose was to support SF, SEAL and SOG operation with the Eldest Son items, plus train them on various other booby-traps introduced by the CIA. His duties included gathering crates of mortar rounds and shipping them to Okinawa for retro fit. This retro fit involved removing the tail fins and machining through the base of the mortar, which is only about 6mm thick. then the HE would be milled out large enough to allow a fuze to be installed. The tail fins would be screwed back in place and sealed. the fuse was a set back fired delay detonator, with an internal break fire for safety, so when the mortar round was dropped down the tube and hit the firing pin, the mortar would go about 14" up the tube before detonating. The fuze was approx. 8mm dia by 40mm long, which included an RDX booster and was press loaded. The nose fuzes were never modified, as the majority of nose fuzes for the 82 were too small and there was no way to fix them so they would be safe to handle without going off. Plus the majority of them were impossible to get into.
7.62 was as described in the various write ups we see all the time.
US hand grenades with no delay, were manufactured in the US and as I have written in past were part of the US NAVY SEAL Swimmer Weapons System .
The biggest problem MSG Willis reported was when the retro fitted mortar rounds would get mixed up with good rounds. At that point he had to X ray the entire lot to ID which rounds were booby trapped. He also said very exact records had been kept on how many rounds of 7.62, 82mm and grenades were ordered or in inventory. But once they were issued out all accounting went away.
At this time MSG Willis and I are working on finding some old records as he was extremely helpful in pointing me in a new direction. We are hoping to find (he is going through all his old photos and files now) are c\some photos of the fuze, Xray of the mortar and some other info.
More to follow
7.62 was as described in the various write ups we see all the time.
US hand grenades with no delay, were manufactured in the US and as I have written in past were part of the US NAVY SEAL Swimmer Weapons System .
The biggest problem MSG Willis reported was when the retro fitted mortar rounds would get mixed up with good rounds. At that point he had to X ray the entire lot to ID which rounds were booby trapped. He also said very exact records had been kept on how many rounds of 7.62, 82mm and grenades were ordered or in inventory. But once they were issued out all accounting went away.
At this time MSG Willis and I are working on finding some old records as he was extremely helpful in pointing me in a new direction. We are hoping to find (he is going through all his old photos and files now) are c\some photos of the fuze, Xray of the mortar and some other info.
More to follow
