Some folks have noticed that a portion of my life has been missing.  The
secret research I did during the Viet Nam War has now been declassified, and
I am free to tell the story. The powers-that-be have decided there is no
further possibility of use for my work.
 
   I grew up in a vegetable producing area, and had gotten a job with a
cannery.  Then they added a new line of frozen food, which used a new
technology called flash-freezing to preserve the quality.
 
    From the maintainance department, I was moved into the setup team for
this new system.  We dropped green peas through a blast of superchilled air,
and they were frozen like a rock when they hit bottom.  When they thawed,
they tasted as if they had never been frozen. The technology is now in
general use.
 
    I had access to the process equipment in the off-season, and did a lot of
experimentation, some of which the company still holds patents for.  But one
of my best discoveries was that you could flash-freeze bees, and they would
revive when they thawed.  The process was so quick that the ice crystals
never broke the cell membranes.
 
    I recalled how a distant kin of mine was a beekeeper in Missouri, when
the territory was feuding over whether to be a free or slave state.  He was
not in agreement with his neighbors, and one day they came to burn him out.
 He had prepared about 50 bee gums into a circle around his home.  When the
raiding party approached, he calmly waited until they were near, then
fired.......at his own bee gums.  They left him alone after that.
 
    I kicked around an idea with a couple friends, that we could design a gun
that would fire these rock-hard bees with no injury to them, and have them
revive as they were hurled through the warm air.  What a great weapon that
would be!
 
    One of these friends had contacts in high places (of which I was
unaware), and I had a couple of officers at my door that evening.  They took
me to a lab (I didn't even know where it was), and gave me all the equipment
I wanted.  I was never allowed to discuss this, even with my Mom and Dad.
 
    We (I was given a team of assistants) designed a gun that would
rapid-fire a couple hundred bees.  If these were lobbed into a foxhole on a
warm day, the bees would revive en route and the enemy (theoretically) would
run screaming from the hiding spot, to be picked off by our snipers.   It was
beautiful, and I was so proud of our accomplishment.
 
    The first shipment of guns and ammo went in refrigerated containers.  But
lack of understanding and care by the personnel en route, combined with the
steamy tropical heat, allowed the bees to warm up a bit.  They were usually
still frozen but often not hard, when they were used.  There were a couple
times when they worked in spectacular fashion, but most of the time, they
turned to mush and jammed up the guns.
 
    My attempt to contribute to the war effort, I guess,  was basically a
failure.  The only lasting evidence of the great experiment is the popular
saying among the GI's: "Many are chilled, but few are frozen."
 
[log in to unmask]    Dave Green,  PO Box 1200,  Hemingway,  SC
29554
 
Practical Pollination Home Page            Dave & Janice Green
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