Did You Know the U.S. Military Uses Silly String in Combat?

Who didn’t have a blast with Silly String growing up? Even as adults, it can be a blast at parties and fun to enjoy with your kids, nieces, and nephews. It truly is silly and makes you smile and laugh.

It wasn’t meant to be a toy, though. Originally, it was invented to help with broken bones as a cast.

According to the Interesting Facts website, two guys, an inventor and a chemist, tried to create something that a doctor could spray onto your arm or leg that would instantly harden while your bones healed.

But Leonard A. Fish and Robert P. Cox found themselves laughing after testing some 500 nozzles on pressurized cans, searching for the best method to spray their invention.

When one nozzle propelled a stream 30 feet across the room, Fish and Cox had another idea — maybe this stringy goo would work better as a plaything. After tweaking their recipe, the duo arranged a meeting with an executive at Wham-O, the company behind such popular toys as the Frisbee and Hula Hoop.

In 1972, Silly String hit the stores, and the rest is history in the entertainment world, where good times are guaranteed for kids and adults of all ages.

Enter 1993.

According to Interesting Facts, even though the seriousness of helping to heal broken bones didn’t make the list of Silly String uses, the United States military did find a way to use it.

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You’ve heard of IEDs, right? Improvised explosive devices in hostile areas are all too common for our ground troops. One way to help locate these dangers is with Silly String. According to Wikipedia, an Army instructor discovered how spraying it could help detect tripwires.

A spritz of the stringy stuff is light enough to drape across nearly invisible trip wires without setting them off, calling attention to these deadly traps often nestled in doorways and gates.

According to Interesting Facts, if you’ve never heard this, that’s okay. It’s not like the military advertises it, and no one really knew about this until 2007.

The revelation of its effectiveness prompted one mother, whose son was stationed in Iraq in the early 2000s, to collect 80,000 cans of Silly String and nearly identical products to send overseas to aid the war effort and save a few more lives.

According to NBC News, soldiers would spray the substance, which shot out around 10 feet. If it hung in the air, they knew the doorways or areas were booby-trapped with trip wires.