News & Politics - Serious use for Silly String

Lexis · 12-07-2006, 05:17 AM

Quote:

In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to
Iraq.
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American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq.

Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.

Now, 1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver's one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia, ready to be shipped to the Middle East thanks to two churches and a pilot who heard about the drive.

"If I turn on the TV and see a soldier with a can of this on his vest, that would make this all worth it," said Shriver, 57, an office manager.

The maker of the Silly String brand, Just for Kicks Inc. of Watertown, N.Y., has contacted the Shrivers about donating some. Other manufacturers make the stuff, too, and call their products "party string" or "crazy string."

"Everyone in the entire corporation is very pleased that we can be involved in something like this," said Rob Oram, Just for Kicks product marketing manager. He called the troops' use of Silly String innovative.

The military is reluctant to talk about the use of Silly String, saying that discussing specific tactics will tip off insurgents.

But Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said Army soldiers and Marines are not forbidden to come up with new ways to do their jobs, especially in Iraq's ever-evolving battlefield. And he said commanders are given money to buy nonstandard supplies as needed.

In other cases of battlefield improvisation in Iraq, U.S. soldiers have bolted scrap metal to Humvees in what has come to be known as "Hillybilly Armor." Medics use tampons to plug bullet holes in the wounded until they can be patched up.

Also, soldiers put condoms and rubber bands around their rifle muzzles to keep out sand. And troops have welded old bulletproof windshields to the tops of Humvees to give gunners extra protection. They have dubbed it "Pope's glass" — a reference to the barriers that protect the pontiff.

Serious use for Silly String - Yahoo! News

Its amazing - all the high-tech weapons and its silly string that's helping them out in this situation!

Lain · 12-07-2006, 02:49 PM

Wow....just wow

Bring out the old school toys...I think they'll be of some use. You know, Slinky, Silly Putty, Jacks

elisheva · 12-07-2006, 04:47 PM

Well...slinkies...you could stretch across a hall and then snap at people's ankles... jacks are painful to step on, so scatter them across the floor..silly putty - gym up the enemy soldier's rifle?

I bet some bored engineers could come up with some clever ideas.

Lain · 12-07-2006, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elisheva (View Post)

Well...slinkies...you could stretch across a hall and then snap at people's ankles... jacks are painful to step on, so scatter them across the floor..silly putty - gym up the enemy soldier's rifle?

I bet some bored engineers could come up with some clever ideas.

For some reason, I kept singing "Everybody loves a slinkie" when I was typing that post

Hmm...we should find a way to also put the Jack in the Box (toy, mind you

) and Pogs to good use.


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