Observation of the day: On brewing coffee with C4

During an email discussion of the explosive used by the testicle-toasting terrorist of Detroit, my friend retired Col. John Meyer commented on his own use of the stuff — and offered a warning. “I’ve heated many a cup of coffee on C4, rolled into little balls,” he said. “The trick was to never try to stamp out the fire when you were finished.”

Asked to explain this use of C4, he added:

The small balls of C4 used to heat rations were about the size of spitballs. C4 can be ignited with a match. As one ball would burn out, you rolled another up next to it, so it would ignite. We used a modified C-ration can for a stove. One side was cut open, so there was plenty of air for the ‘rapid combustion.’ As a side note, long before there was a Starbucks, we figured our C4 heated coffee was pretty expensive. A one-pound block of C4 was reported to cost about $90.

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