So, what's the difference?

Oh, about eight or so zeroes to the left of the decimal in your defense budget. The whatzis, revealed.


Not that several of you guys hadn't already gotten there - you just hadn't connected the final dots. This was a fun one.  Alan scored close early on when he suggested a field expedient weapon rest - he just kept his scale too small.  Roy was sniffing around the target, too, then Blake swept in at the end of day one and essentially nailed it, at least part one.  Then I twisted the knife with part two, and all y'all went down some rabbit holes, with Og actually talking himself out of the correct answer, if only briefly.  On to day three, where John (Not The Armorer) was closing in, and you guys were all circling the target, though stuck in the weeds.  Part four, and Og is getting downright testy, even though he's essentially correct.  BTW - the pulling wings off flies thing was just what it was - a metaphor for the ebil Armorer watching all y'all run around.  No hidden meanings...  Old Fat Sailor showed up with a pretty good answer, too.  All in all, I think you guys did pretty well and had some fun doing it.   

Two things inspired this Whatzis.  One was the passing of the Auld Soldier, which caused me to go through his Vietnam photos, the other was the acquisition of the rocket launcher.  Which is World War II, Australian, and while documentation on usage is sparse, while they could launch bombardment rockets, the single-rail launchers like this one were apparently used mostly to launch smoke markers and flares.



The Auld Soldier, before he assumed command of the 6th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, was the  II Field Force Deputy G2.  One of the projects he was involved in was "people sniffing" - using chemical sensors on helicopters and OV-1 Mohawks that would look for human scents.  Dietary differences between US, ARVN, and VC/NVA troops were sufficient that the systems could distinguish between them... except when it pinged on monkeys...  but that's a story for another time.  It was during one of these missions that the Auld Soldier took these pictures.  This one,showing a triple-stand of 122mm rockets in the jungle, and this one,a much clearer shot of those same rockets.  The picture above is one of the rockets close up after they air assaulted in.  Two of the Auld Soldier's four Vietnam Purple Hearts were caused by 122mm rockets.

As this picture of the launcher I built with about 5 minutes worth of work (mostly involved in finding wood), all you need for this is a rocket (the hard part), something to measure the angle (in my case, that gunner's quadrant resting on the rocket), some rope/wire, and two pieces of wood.  If you're really fancy, a compass, otherwise you just eyeball it in. Some wires, batteries, and an timer/remote control of some sort and you're ready to go.  Many of you and our own Bill have dodged love notes like that whether in Vietnam or in the current operating environment.

The Australian launcher is what you have when you've got some money.  Adjustable bipod legs, secure electrical hookups, a built-in quadrant...  It is an easy one-man portable launcher.  I can only imagine what it would look like and cost if we were to make something similar today, with our penchant for bells and whistles. 

But if you're an insurgent... which would you rather have - at least in the early phases of an insurgency?   Based on how they both look in the bed of the truck - I know which one is going to raise fewer eyebrows at a checkpoint.

Thank you all for playing.  This was a fun one.

Oh - and no, my folding-fin aerial rocket isn't a good choice for this launcher, really - but it's the only kind of rocket I have...  Not too many dummy 4.5 inch bombardment rockets out there, oddly enough.