I wasn't going to post anymore to this thread, but Gareth story about the RN reminded me....

It was up at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, in the middle '60s. The National Guard was out playing war games, shooting off flares and star clusters and TNT blocks and artillery simulatros and blanks and just having one helluva good time.

"Never, ever," said The Word, "shoot a flare at less than a 45 degree angle! Never!"

And so, we move from the field to the area with barracks and real buildings, and someone (who was never discovered, but it wasn't me) apparently wondered just how far a flar would shoot if it were fired horizontal to the ground.

Whoever it was burned down the Officers' Club....