#HTE

A Lifesaving Military Application for…Silly String

I just came across this bizarre story from over ten years ago. A New Jersey mother had amassed 1,000 cans of Silly String and was trying to ship them to her son, who was serving in Iraq at the time.

U.S. soldiers from both the Army and the Marines were doing house sweeps in Ramadi. The insurgents were killing them with booby traps left behind in the houses. A favored technique of the insurgents was to rig tripwires up to explosives. The tripwires were so thin that they were impossible to see.

Some clever U.S. Marine, who had somehow gotten his hands on a can of Silly String, came up with the idea of spraying it into a room or doorway that they were entering. Silly String can shoot up to about 12 feet, and the foam is light enough that it will hang on suspended tripwires without activating the explosives it’s attached to. It then provides a clear visual indication, even in low light, of where not to step.

Army Spc. Todd Shriver learned the trick from a Marine unit, told his mother about it in a phone call, and she then arranged to have the decidedly not-standard-kit shipped over to her son’s unit.