I've been listening to "conspiracy" stuff for a long time; well over a decade. I'm familiar with a lot of the big named conspiracies, theories, facts, and strange stuff.
One subject that keeps coming in on conspiracy circles is the subject of Depleted Uranium (DU).
I was a MK 15 Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapon System) technician in the United States Navy from 1992 to 1998.
We used 20mm DU rounds in the CIWS. Before I left the U.S.S. Oldendorf (DD-972) in 1998, we had tungsten rounds aboard, but needed to discharge the DU before we could use them.
DU is used because it is very dense and hard. CIWS was designed to shoot down inbound anti-ship missiles. Obviously, a missile has no passenger. You want to take it out before it hits the ship. I cannot comment on the use of DU in applications involving live soldiers, sailors, Marines, or civilians because I dealt only with DU in the context of an anti-ship missile system.
Videos like this one mention DU applied in environments where people can be casualties:
I'm not entirely sure what to say to that.
I've heard "conspiracy" people talk about troops who have to handle DU. I did, for about 4 years. I typically used the appropriate safety precautions (gloves, eye protection, flak jacket, helmet, etc). I appear to have no adverse effects of handling DU ammunition. And tens of thousands of 20mm DU rounds have gone through my hands.
I will admit to having lived through some youth poor judgment in relation to DU. When I first reported onboard the U.S.S. White Plains (AFS-4) in 1994 as a 20 year old FC3, the other guys in the shop had a keychain for the firing key made out of a DU round. They'd gotten a machinist to drill a hole in the end of a DU round (don't ask me how they got the round out). It was hanging up in the shop. We all touched it. Apparently, DU is such a hard metal, the ship's machinist went through several drill bits drilling the hole.
One subject that keeps coming in on conspiracy circles is the subject of Depleted Uranium (DU).
I was a MK 15 Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapon System) technician in the United States Navy from 1992 to 1998.
We used 20mm DU rounds in the CIWS. Before I left the U.S.S. Oldendorf (DD-972) in 1998, we had tungsten rounds aboard, but needed to discharge the DU before we could use them.
DU is used because it is very dense and hard. CIWS was designed to shoot down inbound anti-ship missiles. Obviously, a missile has no passenger. You want to take it out before it hits the ship. I cannot comment on the use of DU in applications involving live soldiers, sailors, Marines, or civilians because I dealt only with DU in the context of an anti-ship missile system.
Videos like this one mention DU applied in environments where people can be casualties:
I'm not entirely sure what to say to that.
I've heard "conspiracy" people talk about troops who have to handle DU. I did, for about 4 years. I typically used the appropriate safety precautions (gloves, eye protection, flak jacket, helmet, etc). I appear to have no adverse effects of handling DU ammunition. And tens of thousands of 20mm DU rounds have gone through my hands.
I will admit to having lived through some youth poor judgment in relation to DU. When I first reported onboard the U.S.S. White Plains (AFS-4) in 1994 as a 20 year old FC3, the other guys in the shop had a keychain for the firing key made out of a DU round. They'd gotten a machinist to drill a hole in the end of a DU round (don't ask me how they got the round out). It was hanging up in the shop. We all touched it. Apparently, DU is such a hard metal, the ship's machinist went through several drill bits drilling the hole.
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