Tag Archives: flamethrower

Keeping Warm, Operation Newton edition

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53 Years Ago Today:

Official Caption: “3rd MarDiv, Vietnam, 3Dec67, L/Cpl Hagarty, GH & L/Cpl Rose, HF flammen with ‘C’ Co. 1st Battalion, 4th Marines help each other with their gear on Operation Newton.”

Photo by PFC Shackhail, Marine Corps A193874, via NARA 127-GVB-204-A193874

Of note, the M9A1-7 flame pack weighed upwards of 50-pounds when full, but allowed a range of 130+ feet when using thickened fuel. Add to that the M-1955 flak vest (10-pounds), M1 helmet (3-pounds), web gear, boots, canteens, sidearm, grenades, patrol rats, et. al. and multiply it by the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia, and you realized just how warm Cpls. Hagarty and Rose were, even before the pilot light is lit.

That’s hot and spicy

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I’ve long been a fan of flamethrowers, both civilian and military. It probably dates back to my youth spent losing my eyebrows with the assistance of a can of AquaNet and a Bic lighter, but I digress.

I did an article back in 2013 as kinda a primer on flame weapons in which I referred to the leading expert in the country on U.S. martial flamethrowers, Charles Hobson, who has gotten several of these all too-often scrapped devices back to their natural state.

Well my homie Ian over at Forgotten Weapons managed to track Hobson down and did an excellent walk through on flamethrower doctrine and timelines in the below video. Great job!

Because flamethrowers are used in crime so often…

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The $1,200 XM42, able to ship to your door in 48 states without a license, will send flame over 25 feet away and last for about 38 seconds, but has earned frowns from lawmakers seeking to regulate it over what “could” happen. (Photo: Ion Productions)

The $1,200 XM42, able to ship to your door in 48 states without a license, will send flame over 25 feet away and last for about 38 seconds, but has earned frowns from lawmakers seeking to regulate it over what “could” happen. (Photo: Ion Productions)

In the absence of documented flamethrower attacks, I had a chance to speak with the head of a company that makes the devices about pending legislation that seeks to regulate the items.

Detroit-based Ion Productions has been working on the XM42 flamethrower concept since 2008 and last year raised $50,000 overnight through crowd-sourcing to move what they billed as the “world’s first commercial handheld flamethrower” forward into production.

Moreover, they did their homework beforehand.

“During the development and funding of the XM42 project, we were in contact with numerous fire departments and controlled burn workers in regards to its utility for them,” Chris Byars, Ion’s president and founder told Guns.com. “Farmers, firefighters, controlled burn prescribers have used devices that emit streams of fire for many years.”

Laws governing the devices are few, with only California and Maryland having codified their use while the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have no mandate to restrict them.

However, just months after the X42 gained national media attention, lawmakers sought to step up regulation.

More in my column at Guns.com