We hear a lot of news out of Iraq involving the number killed. What we do not hear much of are the many that sustain non lethal wounds. I have heard that many such wounds involve the penis, scrotum or the entire genitalia being blown off or which require amputation. That has to be one of the most demoralizing injuries a young man could get.

I would think so , unless hes one of us in the ea. limpy

War is sort of like that. Being an old fart I may have the name wrong but it seems to me that a favorite German weapon in WWII was the "Bouncing Betty" land mine because of it's psych effect. It rose into the air and served as a castrator mine.

Huh?

Eviscerator was more like it. Those damned things had a horrible tendancy to gut people. Generally, the genitalia are not as large of a target.

A-1

i would think that genital war wounds are more common than we think. but goverments dont let on about it for moral would be affected

Dayhunter (imported) wrote: Thu Jun 16, 2005 3:44 pm War is sort of like that. Being an old fart I may have the name wrong but it seems to me that a favorite German weapon in WWII was the "Bouncing Betty" land mine because of it's psych effect. It rose into the air and served as a castrator mine.

Yes the Germans did use them towards the end of WWII. The NVA and Viet Cong also used them quite effectively. Those poor guys doing "point man" duty never knew when "miss betty" was going to "bounce up" and take off his gonads and cock. It was an effective demoralizer!!!

The purpose of the castration mines was to destroy the soldier's testicles. They were supposed to jump up between his thighs and blow off his balls. I remember reading about studies done on those of the victims of these mines who had retained the penis to determine the effects of the loss of the testicles in adulthood upon sexual prowess. As I recall, about 50% of the young men were able to perform adequately even without hormone replacement therapy. Another thing which I remember reading about was "iron pants", apparently something like a boxer's foul protector, intended to protect a man's genitals from shrapnel. I seem to recall that the Army Air Corps issued them to bomber pilots and gunners in World War Two. However, I have never seem any mention of them since around 1950, nor have I ever seen them offered as military surplus. Does anyone know anything about them ?

Probably replaced with Kevlar...

A-1

bouncing betty s damaged genitals, gutted, caused limb amputations and death. they were not fun mines at all. limpy

There are no fun mines. --(veteran) FLO--