At "little B aircraft" ca 1970, our "explosives expert" was a rather colorful character that everyone called just "Boom-Boom." I'm not sure that I ever knew what his "real" first name was.

His tale of his glider flight into Bastogne with 2,000 pounds of high-explosives for payload was very graphic, and still scares me just to think about it. (I believe he said that only a two, of the 8 or 9 behind him landed "safely," so his flight was after the Germans had "zeroed in" on the approach paths. "Safely" was sort of a euphemism for "there were pieces left" after the "landing.")

He had a remarkable collection of tales to tell, but he was a professional and I can't give first-hand accounts, so they're not really appropriate here.

A complaint about a "balcony office" that had only one exit led to his proposed solution:

"I'll just stick some shaped-charge det cord in a door-sized outline on the wall. If there's an emergency, you just hit the switch and there'll be a door there."

(The plan was never implemented, although he probably could have made it work.)

John