Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc
No one is saying kerosene is EXACTLY the same as gasoline . . . but your defense using MK77 as somehow laudatory and beyond reproach is rediculous. We intentionally dropped combustible semi-liquid hydrocarbon bombs during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, and Operation Get Saddam . . . get over it.
By this site's
definition most of 'Nams
napalm wasn't napalm.
They found that mixing an aluminum soap powder of
naphthene and
palmitate (hence na-palm), also known as napthenic and palmitic acids, with gasoline produced a brownish sticky syrup that burned more slowly than raw gasoline, and hence was much more effective at igniting one's target.
(The incendiary bombs that rained on Dresden were probably mostly made with phosphorus, not napalm, but I have not been able to find an authoritative source online describing the incendiary material.)
The safer napalm is known as "napalm-B", super-napalm, or NP2, and it uses no napalm at all! Instead, polystyrene and benzene are used as a solvent to solidify the gasoline.
Since the military would much prefer that the napalm burn opposing forces rather than their own forces, the military quickly adopted napalm-B, and it was this form of bomb-grade napalm which was used for aerial bombardment in Vietnam and which is currently stored in Fallbrook.
The above information comes from the Encyclopedia Brittanica article on napalm, and from Scott E. Harrigan, who kindly provided me with information about the various types of napalm as described in Incendiary Weapons by Malvern Lumsden.