CORRECTION – Reeboks for MANPADS – ITEM IDENTIFIED – EXPENDED AND NOT DANGEROUS

Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah’s Military Guys..

I wrote a post yesterday – Reeboks For MANPADS – Surface to Air Missile Exchanged for Shoes – which was prompted by an article in the Orlando Sentinel about a missile launcher that was turned in at a recent gun exchange program. Being a loyal reader of The Castle Argghhh!, I figured that John the Armorer would be interested based on his writings.

Turns out that yes, John was interested – and he was kind enough to not only email me, but to link to my post in his. Bill the Rotorhead (another denizen of the Castle) also left me a comment – thank you kindly as well, Bill . It turns out that the missile launcher was not a surface to air missile, it was an expended missile container for a TOW antitank missile. No missile – that was fired long ago. What the guy turned in was nothing more than an empty tube. As John says, “To make it useful again, you need a launcher, a sight, and… a missile.”

Aside from being a blogger and a retired soldier in the U.S. Army, John is a collector of many things military including demilled (no longer dangerous – inert – LEGAL) ammunition of many types.

In his blog post, John writes:

Nothing wrong with Jeff’s post, based on the info the newspaper provided. But look at the take-away Jeff had from the article.

It’s stuff like this, how the mis-information propagates, that makes my life as a collector more difficult – with good intentions all around – and is part of what drove me into blogging.

Even though he probably doesn’t think it’s necessary, I feel an apology is in order here. One of the things I grumble and complain about is media flying off the handle without all the facts. I must confess that I have done that myself in this case. I knew this wasn’t a Stinger missile, but aside from that I did not know what it was. The covers on the ends of the tube had me thinking it was a live round. John, please accept my apology for making your collecting more difficult !

I’ve dealt with public ignorance from time to time myself. I was involved in high power rocketry for a while and I found that a three foot long, three inch diameter cardboard tube with a plastic nose cone and plywood fins gets quite a few stares and comments, even if it’s painted as brightly and obnoxiously as a NASCAR race car. People worry about an explosion even when they can see that there’s no motor inside and some continue to express fear even after looking down the body from the front (nose cone removed) and seeiing all the way through the motor mount – looking straight through the thing.

Lesson learned – I will ask John first next time before posting about something like this !