OPINION
Published on September 24, 2010 By Big Fat Daddy In Misc

Most of us learned to measure the distance that lightning was from our house by using the "Flash-to-Bang" method...when you saw the lightning you would begin to count "one Mississippi...two Mississippi...three Mississippi..." until the sound of the thunder arrived.  Then you divided the number of Mississippis by five and you got the number of miles away the lightning strike was.  When I joined the Army, I learned a new "Flash-to-Bang" formula:  it had to do with nuclear explosions.  The blast wave travels at about 13 miles per second, much faster than the speed of sound.  Soldiers in the field had to report the direction, time, and flash-to-bang information up their chain of command so the explosion could be accurately plotted.  The plotters had to figure in all the weather and winds and such to determine where the fallout cloud would go...referred to as "wind drift"...then they had to warn whoever was in the wind drift path to protect themselves.  If memory serves, this was called an NBC-1 report.  If enough soldiers reported in from enough different places, the explosion could be pretty accurately located.  Soldiers in the Cold War were particularly adept at this calculation because the greater the Flash-to-Bang number, the better your chances of surviving.  A half-second FtB was definitely not good.


Keep in mind that it has been a long time since I left the Army.  Things change.  But in my day we used the expression "Flash to Bang" to express the gap in time from a word to deed...or an order to a compliance...or...well, you get the idea. When referring to "No Flash-to-Bang", it meant that something happened almost immediately after a commitment to do it was made.

 
A lot of Army jargon is dark in nature...many of us realized that an NBC-1 might very well be the last communication we ever sent...blast waves were followed very closely by surface-of-the-sun temperatures, then after all that, a huge counter-blast comes back from the other  direction, filling in the vacuum caused by the initial blast wave.  None of these things are very good for the human body...but we practiced covering ourselves with our ponchos and putting on our protective masks knowing that we would most likely be found...if we were ever found at all...with all that stuff melted and fused to our naked skulls.  Somewhere in all of that, the release of tremendous amounts of radiation would clean out whoever was far enough out or deep enough down to avoid the effects of the other stuff.  The number of Japanese in and around Hiroshima that died in the blast was almost doubled by the number who died in the following weeks as their insides melted and turned to mush...radiation poisoning.  Every Cold Warrior knew that if the Russians crossed the border and tried to make a run across Northern Germany, the only way we could stop them was the use of "tactical nukes"...small nuclear weapons...low-yield artillery shells and rockets.  And the Russians would immediately respond in kind.  The folks who patrolled the border referred to themselves as "speed bumps" but in truth, once the poopoo got to the propellor, we were all destined to be crispy critters in a matter of hours.  
Well...that deteriorated into a gruesome little tale.  It started earlier today when MamaCharlie said she liked the phrase "Flash to Bang" and the way we used to use it and said she would like to see an article with that title.  Soooo...here it is.  Just another meandering through the brain of an old Army lifer with nothing better to do than try to please his lady.  But not too bad a "Flash-to-Bang" on this one, huh?


Comments (Page 1)
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on Sep 24, 2010

On the good side, the lower the flash to bang, the less time you have to get scared.

on Sep 25, 2010

Like old Bill Cosby said, "First you say it, then you do it".  (If you don't recall, he was talking about his mother's insistence on his wearing clean underwear...in case he was in an accident.  He said, "I thought that was what an accident was...first you say it then you do it !"

on Sep 27, 2010

Like old Bill Cosby said, "First you say it, then you do it".

Oh, I recall it!  He is my favorite comedian, and author (Fatherhood).

on Sep 27, 2010

I love Bill Cosby!  I still watch the re-runs whenever I come across them.  I cannnot change the channel.  Never gets old.  Carol Burnett used to have that same effect on me.  Loved her too. 

on Sep 28, 2010

KFC Kickin For Christ
Carol Burnett used to have that same effect on me.  Loved her too. 

Check out this link: Carol & Friends

on Oct 14, 2010

Hi! Long time since I replied here but I wasn't sure if my PM got to you or not. I'm still alive.. just a lil hectic.

Ill come around more often - now I have like this huge backlog of stories I have to catch up on from you lol

Best

Ruth

on Oct 15, 2010

Glad to see you back and glad you are okay.

on Oct 15, 2010

Ditto on BFD's comment Utemia!  hectic is good, the alternative is boring!

on Oct 15, 2010

I find it a bit scary that you guys had to actually count flash to bangs on nuclear explosions.

Not sure I could count and run at the same time. Not to mention I'm not sure I could calculate the flash to bang and then relay it in time before it hit me.

Comedy aside, this is interesting stuff. I never heard of the flash to bang measurement for lighting distance (or nuclear explosions for that matter). Does it really work? Is is somewhat accurate? I would like to try although am not sure how I can prove the accuracy.

on Oct 15, 2010

Not sure I could count and run at the same time

I actually tried this the other day when I was running a new course and it wasn't easy.  I was trying to count my footsteps to measure a particular short distance from point A to B and it wasn't as easy as I thought.   I'm pretty sure I messed up more than once. 

on Oct 15, 2010

Comedy aside, this is interesting stuff. I never heard of the flash to bang measurement for lighting distance (or nuclear explosions for that matter). Does it really work? Is is somewhat accurate? I would like to try although am not sure how I can prove the accuracy.

Yes.  It works on the speed of sound versus the speed of light.  (So it would not work on the top of Mount Everest as the speed of sound is dependent upon the air density - but if you are on Mount Everest, the last thing you have to worry about is a thunderstorm!).

But you are also right in another regard - scientists say if you can hear thunder, you can get struck by lightning.  And of course if you see an atomic explosion - ditto!  So caveat emptor!

on Oct 15, 2010

Yeah...I doubt anyone would ever submit an NBC-1 if they only counted to one or two...or twelve.

on Oct 15, 2010

I actually tried this the other day when I was running a new course and it wasn't easy. I was trying to count my footsteps to measure a particular short distance from point A to B and it wasn't as easy as I thought. I'm pretty sure I messed up more than once.

Now try it while running from a nuclear explosion, I'm sure you will mess up many, many times.

 

Yes. It works on the speed of sound versus the speed of light. (So it would not work on the top of Mount Everest as the speed of sound is dependent upon the air density - but if you are on Mount Everest, the last thing you have to worry about is a thunderstorm!).

Interesting, gotta check it out someday.

Yeah...I doubt anyone would ever submit an NBC-1 if they only counted to one or two...or twelve.

Twelve? That's still a long time considering. I'm not sure I want twelve seconds to see death coming. I have an idea of how I would react though. When I was playing COD Modern Warfare (I think it was 4, cant remember right now) there was a nuclear explosion in the game that I was not aware was going to happen. Although it was only a game it truly shocked me as I struggled so hard to complete the mission and outrun the explosion only to still die by it. I was actually disappointed I didn't make it.

on Oct 15, 2010

Twelve? That's still a long time considering.

12 seconds?  2 1/2 miles.  when the bang hit you, so would the shockwave (and thus the rest of the nasty stuff), so you would not be able to do much after that.

on Oct 16, 2010

It is only in silly action movies that people can outrun an explosion...or an avalanche...or a junkyard dog.  Like the Sniper's TeeShirt says, "Don't run...You'll just die tired".

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