Re: Naptha

[Tom Hickcox <cometkazie@earthlink.net>]

At 21:53 6/5/01, Jhk789@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated
> 6/5/2001 1:16:49 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
> cometkazie@earthlink.net writes: 
>
>
> > Viet Nam era napalm was a commercially
> > produced product. 
>
>
> Tommy, 
>
> Who produced napalm during the Korean War? 
>
> John 

There was a fairly long & detailed discussion of napalm, its
development, first use, & included use in Korea about a year ago on
either the Topica or Buffalo WW2 list.

IIRC, in Korea at first, at least, napalm bombs were rigged up from drop
tanks & used WP hand grenades to ignite.  [I have no idea how
the grenades were activated.]  The napalm was mixed up on site from
gasoline & a thickening agent.

FWIW, a year or so ago a local chemical plant here in Baton Rouge
received a permit to take in napalm from a storage facility in
California, where it had sat since the Nam war, mix it with another fuel,
& burn it in their boilers.  Some environmentalists, who tend to
knee jerk reactions, thought it a bad idea, fought it in court, were
defeated, & I believe the stuff was burned up.  Air monitoring
showed nothing unusual.

My only experience with it was at a flame thrower familiarization. 
I was the safety officer.  They poured the FT tank almost full with
gasoline, put in about a ½ cup of powder, capped it, shook up the tank,
& they were ready to go.  This was in '63.

Tommy