# I guess I can be thankful



## Cyberchp (Jul 18, 2012)

...I never had to strap on a nuke 



> The fastest, most effective, most surreptitious way to target enemy infrastructure would be to parachute bomb-toting Special Forces soldiers to their objectives. But there was a catch. In his autobiography, Sergeant Major Joe Garner described his work with the project. There was a heavy rucksack attached to him when he test jumped from a military helicopter. The landing was rough, but he walked away from it. It was proof-positive that the plan would work, but it wasn’t until much later that he learned what GREENLIGHT was. *“It was a man-carried nuclear device. That’s when the realization hit me. I was probably the first soldier to free-fall strapped to an atomic bomb.”*
> 
> Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/133848#ixzz20zufNAEh
> --brought to you by mental_floss!


----------



## Marauder06 (Jul 18, 2012)

Probably still weighs less than the mortar base plate ;)


----------



## dknob (Jul 18, 2012)

Berlin Brigade ODA?


----------



## Marauder06 (Jul 18, 2012)

dknob said:


> Berlin Brigade ODA?


 
Most likely.  This article has a little more info:  http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/133848


----------



## Cyberchp (Jul 18, 2012)

Marauder06 said:


> Probably still weighs less than the mortar base plate ;)


 
Ha!
Litmus test to determine if you are loved is they help you jump in your G-76 Hand Crank Generator ;)


----------



## Marauder06 (Jul 18, 2012)

Cyberchp said:


> Ha!
> Litmus test to determine if you are loved is they help you jump in your G-76 Hand Crank Generator ;)


 
Is that like the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator?


----------



## AWP (Jul 18, 2012)

There's a chapter devoted to his jump and the SADM mission in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Name-Copperhead-Legendary-Exploits/dp/0671529315

IIRC, the "plan" was to plant the device and ruck over the nearest ridgeline before it went off. The team figured that even if they survived the blast they were so far behind the FLOT it didn't matter if they lived.


----------



## DA SWO (Jul 18, 2012)

Friend of mine did this, he can tell some pretty interesting stories.


----------



## RackMaster (Jul 18, 2012)

dknob said:


> Berlin Brigade ODA?


 
Yah, further in the article it mentions it.  I don't know if this is a mission I'd volunteer for.  




> In addition to destroying infrastructure, carefully placed atomic blasts would make enemy forces “bottleneck,” where they could be destroyed with other nuclear weapons. Three hundred backpack nukes were made. They were called Special Atomic Demolition Munitions, and most were assigned to *10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Germany.* In a worst-case scenario, their job was to strap on one-kiloton nuclear weapons and parachute behind the Iron Curtain. They would commit nuclear suicide in an apocalyptic war to stop the Soviets from conquering Europe.
> Thankfully, of course, the weapons were never used.
> ​Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/133848#ixzz210feKVjX ​--brought to you by mental_floss!​


----------



## surgicalcric (Jul 18, 2012)

There is at least one member here I know of who was assigned to one of those ODAs.  I will let let him out himself is he so chooses...


----------



## Rabid Badger (Jul 18, 2012)

Cyberchp said:


> Ha!
> Litmus test to determine if you are loved is they help you jump in your G-76 Hand Crank Generator ;)


 
You date yourself!!!!! Jumped one in, that was enough as the Army discovered batteries at that point ;)


----------



## Warchief (Jul 19, 2012)

I served on GreenLight Detachments in both the 10th and 5th. I don't recall anyone asking me or the ODA to "volunteer" for the Greenlight mission.  This mission was just one of the capabilities of the 2 ODAs that I was assigned to.  The part I didn't like about the mission was maintaining eyes on the device until detonation.


----------



## x SF med (Jul 20, 2012)

Chief, you and I both carried that heavy POS at 10th.... and IIRC, YOU told me never to trust the timer ... Thanks, that always made me feel better.

Nostrovya Tovarich.


...and to quote an old song we might have used as motivation...  "BOOM, BOOM, out go the lights..."


----------



## AWP (Jul 4, 2018)

Necroposting with an older article on the SADM.

The Littlest Boy


----------



## CQB (Jul 4, 2018)

About that Cold War blah; the one thing that was found to be an inhibitor was a gazillion traffic jam heading west.


----------



## Gunz (Jul 4, 2018)

AWP said:


> Necroposting with an older article on the SADM.
> 
> The Littlest Boy




That is insane. But I like it.


----------



## x SF med (Jul 5, 2018)

Ocoka said:


> That is insane. But I like it.



I hated the damn thing.


----------



## Devildoc (Jul 5, 2018)

Every time I eat Mexican I am strapping on a nuke so to speak, but that thing?  Dang....


----------



## Gunz (Jul 5, 2018)

It's almost as crazy as Skyhook. 

@x SF med ...did you ever have to do that?


----------



## x SF med (Jul 6, 2018)

Ocoka said:


> It's almost as crazy as Skyhook.
> 
> @x SF med ...did you ever have to do that?



Never rode the Fulton, set it up a few times for materials recovery.    We did use another drag hook system too.  I did  get a 250/250 or two.


----------



## Gunz (Jul 6, 2018)

x SF med said:


> Never rode the Fulton, set it up a few times for materials recovery.    We did use another drag hook system too.  I did  get a 250/250 or two.



Edit


----------

