Got into a discussion with a friend who put in his four years in the army, along with a surprise post-discharge tour in Iraq. Apparently coming home to a 4th of July where you’re limited to a few Roman candles and bottle rockets is a tad underwhelming.

<fred> after grenade simulators roadside fireworks lack razzle-dazzle
<fred> on the real though somehow playing with grenade sims was sometimes more fun than real explosives and guns since because the word “simulator” was in there instead of wrapping yourself in kevlar and going to a range to use it, you got to use them anywhere with no supervision or limitation
<fred> when really all they were lacking to become *real* grenades was a layer of metal to flake off and be shrapnel
<fred> they’re probably a third of the explosive power of an M67 frag
<fred> so add some magnesium and it’s a flashbang
<fred> and you could ask for boxes of the motherfuckers
<fred> and they’d just…give them to you
<fred> we had so many we’d do the dog thing and just bury them in different places around the post
<fred> just in case we needed more