Uncle Si Came Face-to-Face with a Grenade & Dove for His Life

The most memorable moment in this episode of Duck Call Room involves Uncle Si Robertson, a Vietnam veteran, recounting a story from his time in South Vietnam that he has clearly told many times before—and that still makes him laugh. A fellow soldier, fresh from eleven months in the jungle, had returned to base and was trying to relax in the room next to Si's. A boot came through the wall. Then another. The soldier grabbed a pineapple grenade—a World War II-era relic that looked real but, as Si later learned, was inert—pulled the pin, held it for five seconds, and tossed it into the other room. Si, who was lying against the wall separating the rooms, thought the wall was about to blow out. He flipped his mattress over himself, cut his eye and lip on the wiring of the cot, and braced for an explosion. Nothing happened. The soldier was "over dying laughing." He walked into the other room, came back, and tossed Si the grenade. "It wasn't loaded," Si said. "But y'all didn't know that."

The Grenade Story and What It Reveals