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M-80 Firecrackers and the Mushroom Cloud at the Lake

The year was 1966. The location was a lake near San Antonio. How near, I don’t remember. The event was an overnight fishing trip. The players were my father, my two brothers, my father’s friend, and his son. Another important player was the campfire. But first, let’s go back in time a little.

We lived on Lackland Air Force Base. There was a wooded area not far behind our housing unit. The Air Force sometimes used that area for “tactical” training. I say this because now and then, you could find tripwires and booby traps along the trails. Some of the devices were what I call “artillery simulators”. They made a big boom and a flash. Other devices consisted of a mouse trap at the end of a tripwire. When tripped, the mouse trap would ignite a small firework that emitted a whistle noise and a flame, which in turn would light the fuse on an M-80 firecracker. My mission, which I chose to accept, was to locate these devices and relieve them of their explosive ordnance.

Back to the lake. My father and his friend were fishing from a slightly raised area at the edge of the lake. Our campfire was about twenty feet away. I produced an M-80 firecracker from my pocket and asked my father if I could toss it into the campfire. At this point, I must inform you that I had never seen or heard an M-80 detonate. Apparently, neither had my father because I got the "go ahead." I walked over to the campfire where my friend and brothers were waiting, and tossed the M-80 among the logs.

BOOM!

The sound was deafening. Blazing tree branches and debris flew in all directions. One of my brothers turned to run, but got a slight burn on his neck. The rest of us escaped unscathed. My father’s friend was, for a moment, missing. As he climbed back up to his perch, he exclaimed, “I almost peed on myself!” That was the last time I put an M-80 firecracker in my pocket.

Omar from OMARC, the One-Man Amateur Radio Club.