Button Bombs

**V40** · 26th October 2011, 04:40 AM

Bombsaway 1980,

I had no part in Task Force Alpha. Though I wouldn't of mined it!

**weberoed** · 5th January 2012, 08:52 PM

Jeff, drop me an email. I just finished a contract with LockHeed and met this really neat old guy that could talk for years about button bombs and gravel mines. Which according to hom were not the same thing. The button bombs were sensors and/or sensor signal. There was one gravel mine (are we all seem to call it that) was made at Rocky Moutian Arsenal and it was also a sensor signal. got some data on it. The button bomb project did not last every long even though thousands and thousands were made, an electronic cmpany made them, am suppose tog et some more details on that too.

As for gravel mine, 75% of them were made at Cornhusker and the rest at Iowa AAP.

talk later

**Dragontooth** · 7th January 2012, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by weberoed

Jeff, drop me an email. I just finished a contract with LockHeed and met this really neat old guy that could talk for years about button bombs and gravel mines. Which according to hom were not the same thing. The button bombs were sensors and/or sensor signal. There was one gravel mine (are we all seem to call it that) was made at Rocky Moutian Arsenal and it was also a sensor signal. got some data on it. The button bomb project did not last every long even though thousands and thousands were made, an electronic cmpany made them, am suppose tog et some more details on that too.

As for gravel mine, 75% of them were made at Cornhusker and the rest at Iowa AAP.

talk later

Oh sweet Jesus...please share some info will you? We all want to know two things: what was the designation of the 'plastic button bomblets/electronic bomblets' and how many were made and who made them? Do you have pics? I sent you a mail Mike.
Best,
Dave

**Dragontooth** · 9th January 2012, 08:54 AM

Guys, anything new???
Am I the only one so excited about this...?

**EOD** · 10th January 2012, 12:02 AM

No you are not, we are just holding our breath to see more.

**bacarnal** · 9th May 2012, 01:01 PM

Gonna bump this one. Does anyone have any data on the testing of these things, particularly at Picatinny in the "Little Vietnam" area? Currently working up here and for the most part all we get are shrugs and, "well, we knew they tested them in there and they COULD be there", kinda thing, but no hard fast data. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers, y'all, Bruce.

**weberoed** · 9th May 2012, 07:21 PM

At this point out side the tech center, I may have more data then some. email me at webereod@yahoo.com and as soon as I get home I'll see what you need. But by this time (short of having any found in tubs like found at another site) you're only going to find various shaped pads, maybe some electronics and chunks of RDX (but they may also be all dissolved so to speak. Chances of finding a live mine are extremely rare. Picatinny also only test a couple ofhe mines and also developed the RSP for a couple of the carriers/ Army cluster for helicopter. I have that pub plus others. Have been trying to complete a written history of thegravel mine, but just haven't finished it.

If you do environmental work, you'll find pH variations in the soil, RDX and heavy metals (lead)

**Jolly Green** · 28th May 2012, 04:22 AM

Originally Posted by Dragontooth

Guys, anything new???
Am I the only one so excited about this...?

As was previously stated, "No you are not..."
Waiting here also. Hoping...

**weberoed** · 28th May 2012, 03:07 PM

I'm still working on this guys, have all my docs pulled and printed. Right now I am marking our duplicate statements so as to make it easier to pull section for the right up. I have also finished my interviews with 1 expl engineer who worked on these at both Cornhusker and Rocky Mountain. What I can say is the photo with the "buttn bomblets" that were in plastic and had various shapes was a one time try. Seeral thousands of them were made with the postasium chlorate mix. There wre to be the first early warning devcies, but failed becasue they basically didb't make the pattern the wanted, were too low on the pyro mix to make a meaningful bang. They were up graded to the XM 40 and another early warning mine. The button bomb name stayed on becasue the pyro filler was a round thin looking item that at the time they thiught looked like a button. In a number of the doc's and charts we all have seen you will see the term button along with the nomenclature. you will also see terms like micro gravel, sandwich button bomb and gravel minlet. As for loading them, strangley enough there were very few accident (except when they let them get dry). But also as in most all doc's the lead azide for the HE models was kept in feron - an operator would scoop out a specific amount pul in in he bag, bag would do backinto feron, then taken out and a RDX element added, tehn back intothe feron, then taken out and sewn, back into the feron, then pulled out loaded into what ever dispenser Dispenser seald and pumped full of feron. The same procedure was used for a couple of the eraly warning bomblets. When the bomblets were dispensed (depending on aircraft dropping them) a nice pattern could be made. The bomblets would set on the jungle floor, depending on the temp, humdity determioned the arming time (or if they fell in water which then they could not arm). With out going into each model, one had litium chloride to neuralize the azide once it came in contact with enough waer (the RDX charge would be left behind tough), some just rotted and fell apart (but by now the azide will be pretty much dead. Could go on and on, but the wife is yelling saying we are going to be late for the Memorial Day Parade. Which by the Happy Memorial Day