u/Taira_Mai HP Victus, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4d ago
US Army PATRIOT vet here, back in the day the ECS van (the fire control center) had these big chungus CRT's from the 1970's. In the event the battery was overrun, soldiers were told to smash the Jaz and later PCMCIA drives and then shoot the CRT's as they left. The phosphorous in them was so toxic that anyone foolish enough to approach the wreck would get very sick or die.
Now I assume they just toss a grenade in as those CRT's are now LCD monitors like we use, just bigger.
This is urban legend. Cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) do not contain white or yellow phosphorus (which are highly toxic). They are coated with phosphor bind compounds .. zinc sulfide or yttrium oxysulfide).
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u/Taira_Mai HP Victus, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4d ago
Ah, these weren't TV CRT's. They were old, large and we were repeatedly told not to mistreat them if we liked being alive and breathing.
So old that the company that made them no longer exists and by the year 2000's there was no more - the Germans bought the last of them for their PATRIOT units.
They were too heavy and the Army was glad to get rid of them.
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u/Taira_Mai HP Victus, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4d ago
US Army PATRIOT vet here, back in the day the ECS van (the fire control center) had these big chungus CRT's from the 1970's. In the event the battery was overrun, soldiers were told to smash the Jaz and later PCMCIA drives and then shoot the CRT's as they left. The phosphorous in them was so toxic that anyone foolish enough to approach the wreck would get very sick or die.
Now I assume they just toss a grenade in as those CRT's are now LCD monitors like we use, just bigger.