Bob Cashin – An Errant Grenade

Vietnam-Crew-Stories-Bob-Cashin-Errant-Grenade

I believe this happened during the 1968 deployment. We were anchored close to the beach on the gunline on one of those hot, sunny Vietnam days with very little breeze. Captain Taylor was sitting in his Sea Chair on the starboard bridge wing, shirtless as was his custom, looking at clipboards. I was there, as was a sailor whose job it was to lob concussion grenades overboard at irregular intervals to discourage enemy swimmers intent on attaching limpet mines to our hull. The concussion grenade, for those who might not be familiar with it, was a hand grenade in a green fiber case, with a bail, pin and ring. The major difference between these and the more familiar fragmentation grenades was that the fragmentation grenades had a metal jacket designed to explode into many fragments of shrapnel upon detonation. The concussion grenade was designed to produce an unrestricted shock wave to eliminate an enemy swimmer in the water. Out of the water, the shock wave would be even more destructive.

The routine was to pull the pin, then throw the grenade 15 to 25 feet away from the ship into the water. Throwing the grenade would also release the bail, which would start the fuse and detonate the grenade after about 6 or 7 seconds. On this occasion, the designated grenade-thrower pulled the pin and threw the grenade as usual, only to watch it bounce off the radio mast back onto the starboard bridge wing deck directly in front of Captain Taylor. I saw it hit the deck and dove for it. My hand was within inches of that live grenade when someone faster than I was scooped it up and threw it over the side. It detonated in the water. Nobody made a big deal of it – we all went on with our assigned duties. The Captain said nothing, and it was never brought up, so I don’t even know if he realized what had happened in those few seconds. To this day, I don’t know who it was that picked up that grenade. I would like to thank him.